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FUNERAL CUSTOMS 
THEIR ORIGIN 
AND DEVELOPMENT 


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FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


THEIR ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 


BY 


BERTRAM 6. 








THE LAST VOYAGE 


NEW YORK 


FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
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FOREWORD 


An exhaustive treatise on funeral customs, ancient 
and modern, has yet to be written. 

Leaving to the theologian and philosopher the 
thankless task of assigning the mystery of death 
its proper place and functions in the scheme of 
creation, the writer has confined himself to a 
general survey of those practices which surround 
the physical fact of death, a subject which is as 
immense as it is fascinating. 

Whilst investigation shows that almost all our 
present usages have their origin in stupid pagan 
superstitions, they have none the less an interest of 
their own to record. 

It is a wholesome sign that a more enlightened 
public is slowly releasing death from much of its 
ugly trappings, for—* Death, beautiful in itself, is 
only made terrible by groans and convulsions and 
a discoloured face, and friends weeping and blacks 
and obsequies.” So wrote Bacon three hundred 
years ago in his “ Essay on Death.” “ But above 
all, believe me,” he concludes, “the sweetest 
canticle is Nunc Dimittis.” 


BERTRAM S. PUCKLE. 


RICHMOND, 
August 30th, 1926. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 


Tue Author wishes to express his sincere thanks to 
many friends who have helped him with this book. In 
particular, he would mention the following public bodies, 
firms and individuals who have lent pictures for repro- 
duction: Messrs. J. D. Field & Son (for some particu- 
larly interesting material, including the 1824 funeral 
cost account), Messrs. J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., Messrs. 
Odhams Press Ltd., the Trustees of the British Museum, 
the Cremation Society of England, Mr. Emery Walker, 
Mr. John Tussaud, Mr. W. R. Leech, Mr. W. Edgel, 
Mr. Francis J. Bigger and Mr. Edward Good. 


CHAP. 


CONTENTS 


FOREWORD 
THE PROVISIONS OF NATURE 


DEATH WARNINGS—WHEN DOES DEATH 
TAKE PLACE? 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL, COFFINS, 
‘“GRAVE-GOODS,” SUTTEE 


WAKES, MUTES, WAILERS, SIN-EATING, 
TOTEMISM, DEATH.-TAXES 


BELLS, MOURNING . 
FUNERAL FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS 


EARLY BURIAL-PLACES 


CHURCHYARDS, CEMETERIES, ORIENTA- 
TION AND OTHER BURIAL CUSTOMS 


TREES, FLOWERS, BODY-SNATCHING 
PLAGUE 

STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 
CREMATION, EMBALMING 

IN MEMORIAM 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS AND 
MOURNING CARDS 


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LIST OF TRECUS PFRATIONS 


The Prototype of the Mourning Coach : Frontispiece 
To face page 
Fretted Memorial Card Mount - - - 30 


The Capucine Vaults, Palermo 
A 13th Century Stone Coffin p 
‘“ Honouring” the Dead - - - - 96 
Method of constructing Funeral Pyre (Grecian) 


Wailing Women - - - - ie 
The Dismal Trade in Council } : Bila 
Early Form of the Modern Hearse 

Loculi inthe Roman Catacombs , : Mikias 
Vault in the Roman Catacombs 


Old London Burial Ground - A : 0 LAS 
Burke and Hare 


Ballad Card ; j 3 SERS 
Death Mask ‘ : ; : Heyeyan 
Heart Casket 

Invitation to Funeral of Duke of Wellington 902 
Lord Nelson’s Funeral Car - - - 

Roman Funeral Pyre i ; i basen 
Early Horse-drawn Bier 

An Egyptian Coffin } ; ; ; Watond 
Modern Crematorium 

Early Undertaker’s Sign . - - - 280 
Images of Dead Children in Japanese Temple 380 
Funeral of the Comte de Paris ; ~ 


9 


10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


To face page 

Memorial Cards - - - - - 244 
Epitaph of Robert Preston ’ ; ei 3: 
Tombstone of Daniel Defoe 
Memorial Brass of a Knight 

woe - . - 264 
Invitation to a Funeral, 1799 
Mourning Jewellery - . - - - 268 
Mourning Jewellery - - - - - 270 
Cost Account of Funeral, 1824 - - - 278-5 
14th Century Wrought Iron Hearse _ 99 
Modern Votive Candle Stand or Hearse 


FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


CHAPTER’! 
THE PROVISIONS OF NATURE 


In the animal kingdom a dead body arouses no 
feelings of fear or repulsion. In most cases it is 
looked upon as a generous gift of Nature, of which 
the fullest advantage is to be taken, or the oppor- 
tunity lost to competition. 

It is difficult to appreciate how vast a number 
of birds, beasts and insects inhabit the fields and 
woods, and we may well ask ourselves the question 
“What becomes of their dead?”’ Ina day’s search 
we may not find among all the teaming wild popula- 
tion a single stiffened body, or one bright eye glazed 
in death. Here in a clearing we may have chanced 
upon some blood-stained grass, and a few scattered 
feathers, which gave evidence of the hawk or carrion 
crow, but this is very far from accounting for any- 
thing like the greater proportion of the short-lived 
race. 

Has Nature, then, her undertaker? Certainly 
she has. He is appropriately known as _ the 
Necrophorus mortuorum, or more popularly as the 
sexton beetle, for he is equipped with spade and all 
that is necessary for “ undertaking.” 

There is much that the human variety might 
learn from this humble and industrious insect. 
Whilst he is dressed in a conventional garb of black, 

$i 


12 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


he seeks to enliven matters by means of two broad 
bands of yellow on his back. He is cheery, and 
when his duties are over for the day he indulges in 
a little music, not perhaps entirely a matter of art 
for art’s sake, but like most joyous notes of nature, 
his immediate object is to attract the attention of the 
opposite sex. 

In praising the Necrophorus mortuorum, we 
must admit that in his work he is not actuated by 
motives of disinterested philanthropy any more 
than is the case with the human undertaker. 

Nature is indeed far too wise to entrust any 
important work to the spasmodic efforts of the well- 
intentioned. If she wants a job done thoroughly, 
she does not grudge a reasonable wage for services 
rendered. 

If during our lives we are often able to disguise 
from ourselves that we are but superior animals, the 
disabilities of birth and death bring the fact unmis- 
takably before us. 

The helplessness of a new-born babe is 
proverbial, but Nature has provided it with the 
means of making its urgent necessities unmistakably 
apparent, and she has not been less considerate to 
the corpse. 

We must not be shocked to hear that it is by 
means of the olfactory organ that the sexton beetle 
is made aware of the proximity of a new “client.” 
Once having sensed a job, he communicates the 
good news to his wife, and together they fly off to 
the house of mourning by the shortest possible 
route—for competition is keen. 

Arrived at the spot, they find the corpse to be 
that of a recently deceased mouse. 


“Having feasted,” other helpers having also 
arrived, the male beetle proceeds to excavate 
around the body, till by a process of gradual under- 


THE PROVISIONS OF NATURE 18 


mining it sinks into a considerable hollow, thus 
prepared for its reception.’ 

The work is finished by piling the earth neatly 
on the top. 

For the purpose of excavation Nature has 
provided the sexton beetle with club-shaped 
antenne, which are supported by strong muscles 
equal to the work that they are called upon to 
perform. It should be stated that Mrs. Beetle 
remains in possession of the body in which her eggs 
are laid. Surely this is a sanitary and logical con- 
clusion to a commonplace event, in which every- 
body concerned is paid off and satisfied. 

It teaches a lesson that burial is a natural method 
of disposing of the dead, and it gives more than a 
hint, that believe what we will of the prospects of a 
future life, death is only a rather misleading term 
for a changed, by no means an impaired, activity. 

It will be self-evident that in dealing with the 
larger animals, such as bears, lions, etc., the sexton 
beetle, however numerous and industrious be his 
kind, would be sorely taxed if he received a call 
from a client. We must not, however, under-rate 
the extraordinary power of the insect world when 
working together with a common objective. 

In the jungle the greater feeds on the lesser, 
and the jackal and vulture scavenge what remains. 

The busy workers living in organized com- 
munities deal with their dead on lines more akin to 
human necessities. Their own dead, or a chance 
intruder into the ant-hill city, will be treated with 
system and dispatch, and the body removed long 
before it has any opportunity to prove offensive or 
dangerous to the community. 

The ants, being carniverous, will quickly devour 
any beasts or insects which may die near their nests, 


1Grant Allen, ‘‘ Nature’s Workshop.”’ 


14 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


and if anything uneatable remains, a squad of 
workers will be summoned at once to remove the 
offence to some more convenient place. 

The bee, having no use to make of the body, 
has but one idea, and that is to expel the corpse, or 
so deal with it that the carefully regulated atmos- 
phere of the hive shall not suffer from the presence 
of any poisonous fumes, 

The workers of their community who are set 
apart for scavenging purposes, will soon eject a 
body by shouldering or pushing it out of the hive. 
If the intruder be a slug or snail, it may happen that 
it has climbed into such a position that its bulk will 
render it impossible for the bees to deal with it in 
the ordinary manner. In such a case the unhappy 
adventurer is quickly walled up with wax in the 
position in which he is found, and the tomb 
hermetically sealed past all fear of any harm to the 
city. 

At exactly what period superstition affected 
death and burial, it is of course impossible to say. 
Perhaps it was taught to man by the sigh of the 
wind in the trees, or the dramatic terrors of the 
thunderstorm—however it came about, we know that 
the possibility of a spirit world was an early 
consideration. 

The valiant hunter, undismayed by fierce 
encounters with wild beasts and his own kind, learned 
to crouch and shiver at the shadows, or, having 
slain his adversary, he fled from the accusing eye 
and hid from the avenging spirit. Even to-day, 
amongst savage tribes, it is quite common to find 
the shadow of a man attacked by the witch-doctor, 
in the belief that it is the soul. 

We may weli suppose that in such matters a 
very long time would elapse before anything con- 
crete enough to be called a religion took possession 


THE PROVISIONS OF NATURE 15 


of man’s mind. Asked by a missionary what were 
the gods he worshipped, a savage replied: “ We 
know that someone walks amongst the trees at night 
—but we never mention it.” 

This is probably the state of mind of the early 
inhabitants of the earth. 

With a belief in good and evil spirits inhabiting 
material things, we can at once trace this influence 
in funeral customs, for there is hardly a practice 
which has not had its origin in the old dread of 
haunting and revengeful ghosts. 

When the next stage is reached—a belief in a 
general participation in a future life—a whole range 
of interesting happenings develop. 

These are the foundation stones upon which our 
present day usages are built, varying in accordance 
with all sorts of minor considerations, such as 
climatic environment, etc. 

Belief in a future state presupposed a material 
existence after death, with corresponding material 
necessities. Food must be provided, weapons and 
clothing, and a supply of charms with which to ward 
off those evil influences which the soul might expect 
to encounter on its journey. 

Special provision would be made for those of 
rank—wives and servants for the chief, and a horse 
and attendant for the warrior and hunter. 

This early attitude of mind was based on the 
supposition that death would surely bring with it 
that completeness of desire too often unsatisfied 
during the earthly existence. 

That the ultimate state was one of happiness, 
seems to have been generally taken for granted. 
Can we say that the symbols used by a past genera- 
tion as expressions of a state of bliss—such as 
crowns, harps, streets paved with gold and gates 
of pearl—have not often enough been accepted 


16 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


literally, and on no higher lever than the “ Happy 
Hunting Ground” of the American Indian? 

Amongst these materialistic views we may place 
the idea of death as an endless sleep or physical 
rest, too long denied to tired laborious lives. 

We shall have evidence enough that a literal 
acceptance of this figure of physical rest and sleep 
in the grave represents the real aspirations of a 
number of people to-day, as in a past generation. 

Thus we find a conception of the soul linked in 
various ways to earthly associations. 

Loosed from the body, it was once supposed 
that the spirit quickly returned to its old surround- 
ings, gifted with many supernatural powers, against 
which the living were unable to conceal their 
thoughts. 

It is indeed a sad insight into the human 
conscience to discover what elaborate precautions 
were considered necessary in order to avoid the 
persecutions of the revengeful dead. 


CHAPTER II 
DEATH WARNINGS—WHEN DOES DEATH TAKE PLACE? 


Ir is perhaps natural that around the three great 
mysteries—birth, love and death—a crowd of super- 
stitions cling, the children of those unnamed fears 
which accompany so many of us from the cradle 
to the grave, and which certainly dominated the 
lives of less enlightened generations, 

That death, the greatest of all mysteries, should 
be singled out to be embroidered with many fantasies 
does not surprise us. 

Many of the superstitions which we shall note 
are obviously nothing more than a chain of 
associated ideas; such as, for instance, the very 
general belief that it is unlucky to sit down thirteen 
to a meal, it being held that the first to rise from the 
table will go to his death. 

The origin of this superstition is, of course, the 
Last Supper, from whence Judas, one of the twelve, 
left the table and went out into the night to betray 
his Lord. 

“Death warnings” as they are called, have 
nearly all an obvious origin. A raven or other 
black feathered bird is seen to alight on the thatch 
of acottage where amanisdying. Simply by force 
of associated ideas the gossiping neighbours agree 
at once that the bird is an omen of speedy dissolu- 
tion, which event taking place shortly after, a new 
warning is added to the ever growing list. There 
are, however, certain superstitions which cannot be 

17 B 


18 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


readily accounted for, unless we are prepared to 
admit the existence of supernatural intervention. 

There is, in fact, a considerable amount of 
testimony in favour of certain hard-dying beliefs, 
the origin of which it is outside our purpose to con- 
sider, such, for instance, as the well-authenticated 
cases of dreams, in which a warning has been given 
of the approaching death of friends and relatives, 
or in some cases of the dreamer himself. 

We are familiar with stories of persons so con- 
demned who have thought by special precautions to 
avert the fate of which they have been warned. It 
has been said that once the mind of the person has 
been infected by a belief that death is inevitable 
on a certain day, the action of the mind upon a frail 
body may well be responsible for the physical 
result. This is an explanation which many will 
prefer to hold. 

Amongst such beliefs, perhaps the most familiar 
is the frequently repeated assertion that a clock has 
stopped at the very moment that a death took place, 
with which may be classed our old friend, the falling 
picture, and the supernatural summons to the bed- 
side of a dying person. 

It would be quite impossible to attempt to 
chronicle anything like a complete list of death 
warnings, but the following are worth noting: 

It is generally believed by sailors and fisherfolk 
that death is delayed till the ebb of the tide (it will be 
remembered that Dickens used this superstition in 
“David Copperfield’’). “It being low water, he 
(Barkis) went out with the tide.” 

In Scotland a white rose blooming in autumn is 
accounted as an omen of an early death. 

In Devon, if a sick person begs for a draught of 
cider, it is also a sign of death. This superstition 
rather suggests that the desire being gratified, the 


DEATH WARNINGS 19 


patient might well succumb from the effects of that 
ungenerous beverage. 

The ebbing tide and the unusual appearance 
of the white rose in autumn may be safely catalogued 
as associated ideas, and also the very general belief 
that the fire burning black on one side is a token of 
a death in the family, or the peculiar formation of 
wax round a burning candle which suggests a white 
shroud. 

Similar explanations might be reasonably given 
for the following : 

When a dying person “sees something white” 
or if he “sees something black” a less enviable 
fate awaits him. 

When fruit and flowers appear on the same tree; 
if you should be so imprudent as to wash clothes on 
a Good Friday, you are said to “ wash someone out 
of the family.” 

If you chance to drop a mirror in which you 
have seen your own reflection, you have killed the 
reflection, hence you are doomed. 

If you shiver it is said by the gossips that 
“someone is walking over your grave.” 

If you dream of nursing a baby and the baby 
cries, you will either die yourself or lose a near 
relative. 

All these superstitions are foolish and harmless 
enough, but one might be mentioned which has lead 
to much trouble and has a wide influence even over 
the minds of people who ought to be better informed 
—the belief that if a person makes a will it is a sign 
that they will die shortly after. 

The following has a less obvious origin and may 
well be a survival of the belief in nature spirits. 

It is said to be unlucky to save a drowning man, 
for on being brought back to life it is thought that 
he will wreak vengeance on his rescuer at the 


20 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


dictation of the water spirits who have thus been 
baulked of their lawful prey. 

We see the nature spirit again in the legend of 
the “Pool of Brereton” (Cheshire), in which the 
trunks of trees are said to swim on certain days 
before the death of the heir of the estate, as also in 
the legend of Credenhill Court (Herefordshire), 
where an ancient elm, known as “ Prophet Elm,” is 
supposed to shed its branches as a token of the death 
of the head of the house.* The connection between 
certain trees and funerary customs should be noted, 
for here we shall find later many traces of the most 
ancient of all religions—the worship of trees. 

“Tt is certain,” says Carew (“Survey of Corn- 
wall’), “ that divers ancient families in England are 
forewarned of their death in the mansion by oaks 
bearing strange leaves.” An example of this is an 
oak in Lanhadron Park (Cornwall), which bears 
speckled leaves before a death in the family. 

In some country estates the rooks are said to 
abandon their nests at the approach of death, and 
do not return until after the funeral, as in humble 
homes the crickets and the mice retire in like manner 
from the domestic hearth. 

It is perhaps in the nature of things that royal 
and illustrious families receive special warnings 
not vouchsafed to meaner men, otherwise it would 
be difficult to account for a number of instances 
where a special forerunner of disaster appears to be 
provided for their exclusive information, one of the 
best known examples being “The White Lady” of 
the Hohenzollern. This spook is said to have 
appeared to Napoleon, and has been frequently 
seen in Karlsruche and other royal palaces since the 
middle of the seventeenth century, as the invariable 
herald of disaster to members of the family. 


1 Reginald B. Span, Occult Review. 


DEATH WARNINGS 21 


The royal houses of Bavaria and Romanoff are 
also credited with ghostly visitants; it is, however, 
worth noting that their generous services are of 
little value, as we have no instance where the 
illustrious persons have been able to avoid their fate 
by virtue of these dramatic “ warnings.” 

At the marriage ceremony of the Crown Princess 
Louisa of Saxony, “three archdukes who were 
standing close to me became so impatient that in 
order to find another way out of the chapel they 
jumped over my train. My brother-in-law, the 
Archduke Otto, noticed this, and said in rather 
perturbed tones, “Do you know the Hapsburg 
superstition, that anyone who jumps over a bride’s 
train dies in the same year?’ ‘ Well, it’s November 
now, so they will have to be quick about it,’ I said, 
trying to pass it off lightly, for I saw that Otto was 
really upset at the occurrence, for many uncanny 
things happened to us Hapsburgs.” * 

If it was a coincidence it was truly a remarkable 
one, that in a fortnight’s time the Archdukes 
Sigismund and Ernest died, only to be followed at 
the end of December by the third archduke, Karl 
Ludwig. 

The same Princess relates having seen in 
November, 1902, the phantom black cat which is 
said to appear on the altar of the royal chapel in 
the Zinzendorf Strasse, Dresden, to presage 
disaster. 

The Banshee or “‘ woman of the fairies ” of Irish 
legend has always a very select clientele, and can 
only be induced to wail or “ keen ”’ as it is called, for 
the very best families. 

In Wales this spook is known as the witch of 
Rhibyn, whose lamentations are not to be confused 
with the Cyhyraeth or “ groaning spirit.” 


1 Fx-Crown Princess of Saxony, ‘‘ My Own Story.”’ 


22 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Before we examine the rites and customs of 
burial, in their natural sequence, there is one aspect 
of the subject which deserves some special con- 
sideration, and that is the very debatable point as 
to exactly when death may be said to have taken 
place. 

The thought of the possibility of being buried 
alive is a very real and haunting terror to a large 
number of sensitive people, as we may be assured 
if we study the curious clauses in wills which 
frequently appear in the Press. 

Two recent examples of this may be quoted. 

A lady dying at Hever, in Kent, left substan- 
tial sums of money for charitable purposes, and 
directed “ that my body shall be stabbed to the heart 
to make sure that life is extinct.” And the follow- 
ing from the will of a wealthy man who recently died 
at Herne Bay: “At my death a medical man shall 
make such experiments as may be necessary to make 
sure that life is extinct, and until the burial my 
remains are to be watched over by two nuns.” Such 
requests have always been quite common, and show 
how deep is the fear of being buried alive. 

In the year 1896 the Association for the Preven- 
tion of Premature Burial was founded to safeguard 
its members against premature burial by arrange- 
ment with medical experts in various localities, who 
would scientifically certify death in accordance with 
certain tests laid down by the Association. A 
further object of the society was the scientific 
investigation of trance. 

Writing in support of this movement, the matter 
was well summed up by Sir W. J. Collins, M.D., 
F.R.C.S. (ex-Chairman L.C.C.) who said: “It is 
morbid sentiment that precludes the adequate con- 
sideration of the subject in this country, while it is 
only too easy to dismiss it with ill-directed jest.” 


DEATH WARNINGS 23 


‘ 


Suppose that a person has “passed away,” he no 
longer breathes, the action of the heart has ceased 
and the doctor has pronounced life to be extinct. 
Perhaps some test has been applied, such as breath- 
ing on glass—a very popular expedient—and there 
appears to be nothing left to be done but to make 
arrangements for the burial. It would be somewhat 
startling to the average person to learn on the 
authority of Dr. Brouardel, the eminent French 
specialist (Director of the Morgue, Paris) who made 
a life study of the subject, that this is “a grave 
popular error,” “for many persons who no longer 
breathe have been recalled to life by means of care 
and skill.’ He says further, “the moment of death 
cannot therefore be assumed to be identical with 
cessation of respiration.” 

As regards the beating of the heart, he recalls a 
case where a man was executed at Troyes, whose 
heart beat for an hour after decapitation, the body 
being accompanied from the scaffold by two doctors 
who verified this fact. 

Dr. Brouardel gives several instances of 
apparent death, and quotes the following case, in 
which he himself was present, from verbatim copy 
of notes taken the same evening. 


‘© PLOINGNEAU, 
October ist, 1867. Midnight. 


“T exhumed at eight p.m. Philoméle Jonetre, 
aged twenty-four, buried at five p.m. in a grave six 
feet deep. Several persons heard her tap distinctly 
against the lid of the coffin. These blows appeared 
to me to have left visible marks, but I did not hear 
them myself.” 


He then goes on to describe the absence of all 
the ordinary signs of death, ‘‘rigor mortis” and 


24 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the like. ‘Ammonia and other restoratives were 
applied.” He then continues: “ She was not dead, 
but like a candle, the flames of which had been 
extinguished, though the wick continues to glow. 
No definite sounds of the heart, but the eyelids 
moved in my presence. The body was kept un- 
buried till the following day. This,” he adds, 
“is an authentic case of burial during life.” * 

From many sources, more or less reliable, 
similar instances of premature burial might be 
quoted. 

In the churchyard of- Rye, Sussex, there was a 
tombstone, now defaced by age, depicting the figure 
of a woman sitting upright in her coffin, of whom 
the following curious story is related. She was 
subject to attacks of syncope, and was supposed on 
one occasion to be:dead. Wrapped in a shroud, 
her body was placed in a coffin in the old Flushing 
Inn which is still standing. Thus she lay till the 
morning of the day appointed for her burial. The’ 
oven was being heated for the baking of the funeral 
repast when she awoke, climbed out of her coffin 
and walked downstairs, where she was found by the 
horrified cook, standing before the kitchen fire, 
complaining that she “felt the cold.’ She lived 
for some years after this extraordinary experience. 
It would seem that there is a period of suspended 
animation which may occur from various causes, 
and which is very likely to be mistaken for death. 

Evelyn the diarist gives the following quaint 
account of a resurrection. 


“Supped at Sir William Petty’s, famous for 
having brought back to life a poor wench who had 
been hanged for felony, her body having been 
begged as the custom is, for the anatomy lectures; 


1 Dr. Brouardel, ‘‘ Death and Sudden Death.”’ 


DEATH WARNINGS 25 


he had her ‘ put to lie with a warm woman’ * (surely 
some credit is due to the warm woman), and with 
spirits and other means restored her to life.” 


A full account of this exploit was published at 
the time in a pamphlet entitled, ““ News from the 
Dead, or a true and exact relation of the miraculous 
deliverance of Anne Greene, who having been 
executed December 14th, 1650, afterwards revived 
and by the care of a certain physician, is now 
perfectly recovered.” 

It is well known that the Indian fakir and his 
kind, under the influence of control, allow them- 
selves to be buried for three weeks or longer; at the 
end of which period the flickering flame of life 
returns. 

When does death take place? Anyone who has 
assisted at the restoration to life of a body recovered 
from the water, who has seen the miracle of return- 
ing animation to an apparently lifeless body, as a 
result of scientific treatment, lasting perhaps an 
hour or even longer, will hesitate for ever after to 
judge the matter on a basis of appearances, for it 
is between the time when the ordinary symptoms of 
death are apparent, and the actual setting in of 
putrefaction, that science may find a means to revive 
life. 

It is rather by a combination of recognized signs 
than by dependence upon any particular “test ” that 
life may safely be pronounced to be extinct, and it 
is only a qualified person, after careful examination, 
who has any right to give such a verdict. 

In both the animal and vegetable kingdom 
examples are not wanting to show the wonderful 
provision of nature to protect the life of her children 
in extraordinary circumstances. The common 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 


26 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


pond trout frozen in snow will remain apparently 
lifeless for days, but will revive at once if placed in 
water again. | 

Despite the far-fetched stories of toads who are 
often said to remain embedded in trees, or built up 
in walls for years, and to come to life again on their 
release, there can be no doubt that such creatures 
are able to suspend animation for lengthy periods, 
in unfavourable conditions. 

Before leaving this subject, there is another side 
of the question of which even less is known, and that 
is—granted that man has a soul—when does the 
soul leave his body? It has been the general 
practice in all ages to reserve the corpse for a certain 
period before burial. The actual time has depended 
somewhat on local conditions, climate and the like, 
and the custom is further influenced by the natural 
desire of affection which dictates that the body 
should be kept from dissolution as long as it is 
possible, but woven into these practices is the dim 
consciousness that the soul may not have finally 
severed the link which has bound it for so long 
to the body. Various customs, which we shall 
presently consider, show how deeply this thought 
hasahold on our minds. At the present time, when 
men of science are no longer ashamed to be associ- 
ated with a belief in a spiritual existence after death, 
itis interesting to follow the results of their investiga- 
tions, to confirm by demonstration what we have 
hitherto accepted, perhaps with a flickering faith. 

We gather that the modern spiritualist holds that 
the soul dominates the physical life, and only when 
it leaves the body can death take place and decom- 
position set in. So far he would seem to agree 
with the general practice of all ages, that the body 
should not be buried till these signs are unmistak- 
ably present, but he takes us a step farther, for he 


DEATH WARNINGS 27 


professes to have proof that the soul is attached to 
the body by an elastic cord of unlimited tension to 
the various vital parts of the body, and we are told 
that for a period lasting for days, or weeks, in the 
case of an active man meeting with a sudden death, 
the soul is not severed from the body, even if burial 
has taken place in the meantime.* 

How far we are prepared to credit such evidence 
must be a matter of personal consideration—to scoff 
is wholly irrational, for we shall find that many of 
the observances we cherish to-day have their origin 
in the grossest superstition of which any intelligent 
person might well be ashamed. 

Various experiments have been tried with a view 
to overcoming the possibility of premature burial. 
What we know as mortuary chambers were estab- 
lished in Germany. They were built for the 
purpose of providing a resting place to which bodies 
could be removed immediately after death had 
presumably taken place, in order that they might be 
systematically under observation till putrefaction 
had definitely set in. Every possible precaution 
was taken to this end. A bell-rope was placed in 
the hand of the corpse, so that, should any return 
of consciousness take place, it would be immediately 
notified. As an additional precaution an official 
was in constant attendance, whose duty it was to 
inspect the bodies in his charge from time to time. 

It will be some consolation to those who suffer 
from a horror of being buried alive to learn that no 
instance has been recorded of bodies placed in these 
mortuary chambers having “come to life.” 

These institutions are not to be confused with 
the Mortuary or Morgue. 

Amongst the very many evils existing in con- 


1J. Hewat McKenzie, ‘‘ Spirit Intercourse—Its Theory and 
Practice.”’ 


28 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


nection with our methods of disposing of the dead 
may be cited not only a general lack of proper 
mortuary accommodation throughout the country, 
but particularly the attitude both of the officials and 
the public towards this most necessary institution. 
The thought that the bodies of friends and relations 
should be taken to a mortuary suggests to the 
average mind an indignity, a social degradation. 
The mortuary is regarded as especially provided by 
the State for the bodies of unfortunate outcasts 
picked up from the gutter, or dragged from the 
river, or at the best, as a place where the suicide or a 
person meeting with some dreadful accident is 
impounded till a jury can be called together for an 
inquest. We associate it mentally with the prison 
and the workhouse. Yet, when we are called upon 
as citizens to sit on coroners’ juries, we see nothing 
incongruous in the fact that a public-house is con- 
sidered a fitting place to take the corpse for the 
purpose of an inquest. ‘This attitude is entirely 
wrong and a relic of Bumbledom. When we con- 
sider the vast floating population of London alone, 
housed for the most part in hotels, flats, boarding- 
houses or in lodgings, it must be seen that from a 
moral, hygienic or economic standpoint, proper and 
decent accommodation should be provided by the 
State in every district, to which bodies should be 
compulsorily removed immediately after death has 
been certified. It should, moreover, be a punish- 
able offence to keep a body in any house, unless a 
special permit be obtained from the medical officer 
of the district, showing that he was personally 
satisfied that suitable accommodation had been 
provided for the purpose. The following story is 
not beautiful, but it not only has the advantage of 
being true, it is also typical of what goes on around 
us in our overcrowded cities. 


DEATH WARNINGS 29 


Dr. Brouardel quotes an instance from his own 
experience, where a man, living with his family in 
one room, died of smallfox. Here, on reaching 
the house, he found the family entertaining their 
friends who had come to “watch the body.” He 
says: “ There were bottles everywhere, even on the 
abdomen of the deceased. This,” he adds, “1s 
by no means an isolated case.” * 

One can picture the insanitary conditions of 
such a “chamber of horrors,” crowded with persons 
whose ideas of personal cleanliness at any time were 
not very urgent. The blinds would probably be 
drawn, the window shut, and the family with the 
usual complement of small children and _ babies, 
would eat and sleep in the poisoned atmosphere. 
So overlaid are all our primary customs by empty 
sentiment and clown-patches of tradition, that this 
crying abuse, which is relatively as bad for the vast 
population of small villa residences as for those who 
inhabit the “slums,” can only be effectively attacked 
by the example of those whose doings are aped by 
lesser minds. 

Do we not find an opportunity here for the under- 
taker to justify himself? Could he not provide 
suitable mortuary accommodation to meet the needs 
of those who still have a “feeling” about public 
mortuaries. Certainly in some cases he has risen 
to the occasion and has provided (for a substantial 
consideration) a temporary resting-place for his 
“clients.” The writer had a recent opportunity of 
inspecting the premises of one of these super- 
undertakers. He was shown with pride a “chapel” 
where the rich might “lie in state.” Needless to 
say, it was resplendent with every conceivable 
vulgarity dear to the Dismal Trader’s heart, where 
imitation stained glass and bastard Gothic decora- 


1 Dr. Brouardel, ‘*‘ Death and Sudden Death.”’ 


30 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


tion gave an air of theatrical sanctity; in place of 
what was required, a simple well-ventilated chamber, 
furnished only with the necessary provision for 
bearing the coffin, it was tricked out to resemble a 
place of worship, plus all his beastly trappings of 
death. When will it occur to the Trader that his 
province is to supply a box and a decent vehicle, 
and only that, and leave the question of ceremonies 
to the clergy, if we need them. 

Let us rather entrust our bodies to the Inspector 
of Nuisances till some proper provision can be made 
by the State. With regard to the time allowed to 
elapse between death and burial in this country, we 
are generally in agreement with the customs of 
Greece and Rome, to await the period of physical 
decay. In Germany forty-eight hours only is 
allowed, Spain and Portugal five or six hours, 
France twenty-four hours. In other countries the 
time is largely dictated by the climate. 


in Affertionate Remembrance 


or 


JOHN BLAKEY, 
Born, April 22nd, 1849; Died, December 


27th, 1842. 
eae 
Ye mourning parents, dry your tears, 
And leave your darling Son, 
Safe in the keeping ef your God, 
And say “Thy will be dene’ 





FRETTED MEMORIAL-CARD MOUNT, 


This Victorian atrocity, printed in. black and silver, was supplied by the 

undertaker. The memorial card was attached, the whole intended to be 

framed and glazed (illustration approximately half full size). Note the 

traditional symbols of grief—the inverted torch, palm of martyrdom, broken 
column, ivy and weeping willow. 





q@ 
7 





GHAVARER EET 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL, COFFINS, ‘‘GRAVE-GOODS, ” 
: SUTTEE 

In order to follow the various burial customs as 
clearly as possible, we will consider them in their 
natural sequence. 

Death has taken place, with or without such a 
supernatural warning as we have noted in a 
previous chapter, and precautions have been taken 
(we will hope) to ascertain that what was once a 
human being is now a “ lifeless corpse ’—an expres- 
sion that we may use without tautology. Whilst the 
word “corpse” is now accepted as denoting a dead 
body, it was at one time as often used in describing 
the living; of which Trench gives the following 
examples :* 

““A valiant corpse where force and beauty met. 

“Women and maids shall particularly examine 
themselves about the variety of their apparel, their 
too much care of their corpse.” * 

When the soul or personality goes away, leaving 
the body behind, it severs all association with the 
remains, which become a public charge, with an 
implied obligation on the relatives. Should they, 
however, for one reason or another refuse it burial, 
any stranger may undertake that duty, and recover 
the cost from the estate of the deceased by law. 


be) 


1 Trench, ‘‘ Select Glossary.”’ 
2 Surrey, ‘‘On the Death of Sir R. Wyatt.’’ 
3 Richeomes, ‘‘ Pilgrim of Loretto.”’ 


31 


82 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


The only way that a person in this country can 
assure his wishes being carried out in respect of a 
particular form of burial is by leaving his property 
to friends or relatives conditionally upon his 
expressed desire being respected. Although it is 
of course still open to such a person to refuse the 
legacy and act in the matter according to his lights. 
This is not infrequently done in cases of a difference 
of religious opinions. An amusing case of avarice 
versus religious convictions will be found in a 
chapter on cremation. 

It cannot too strongly be insisted upon when we 
compare the practices of the past with the present, 
that the very customs to which we cling so unreason- 
ably, are for the most part unworthy remnants of 
superstitious rites, and not anything dictated by any 
form of Christian religion to which we may subscribe. 
This is important, because we can readily trace the 
continuity of such usages in the absence of any sort 
of authority for what we do—to the accepted and 
erroneous belief that they are associated in some 
way with articles of a faith, which it would be 
impious to rough-handle, thus they have been 
handed down from generation to generation, im- 
pervious even to ridicule and carefully fostered by 
the Dismal Trader. 

Let us look, for instance, at the demands of the 
Roman Catholic Church, as representing a body 
of Christians who, employing an elaborate ritual, 
might impose such customs upon their followers. 

(1) That the body be decently laid out. 

(2) That lights be placed beside the body. 

(3) That a cross be laid upon the breast, or 
failing that, the hands laid on the breast in the form 
of across. 

(4) That the body be sprinkled with hcly water 
and incensed at stated times. 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL _ 338 


(5) That it be buried in consecrated ground. 

Here we have certain observances, decreed, 
which have no relation to mourning weeds, floral 
offerings, funeral repasts, plumed hearses or tomb- 
stones, whilst as far as ceremony is concerned they 
merely apply to the dead those rites which are 
(rightly or wrongly) enjoined for the living. The 
wearing of the cross—for example, the recognized 
symbol of the Christian faith, the use of lights, 
incense and holy water are but the common practice 
of Catholicism. There is one thing which the 
Catholic Church does zo# allow, as being historically 
against the Christian practice—and this is cremation. 

If we go back to the earliest Christian times we 
find certain decrees issued in relation to the burial 
of the dead, but still no mention of the “trappings 
of the trade.” 

In the days of Constantine, companies of 
functionaries were established, with definite duties 
of charity to the dead. They worked in groups 
under the general supervision of the Decani or 
overseers. Some were charged to “prepare for the 
religious procession,” others to “carry the bier,” 
whilst it was the duty of yet another group to “lift 
the body and dig the grave.” Laws were also made 
at the same period to secure all expenses against 
overcharge. Every person who needed it was to 
have a coffin without payment, whilst even the 
poorest were to be followed to the grave by a cross- 
bearer, light-monks and three acolytes. The 
funeral banquet, an abuse which on various pretexts 
was creeping in, was also banned by the Church. 

The Council of Auxerre forbade the ceremonial 
kiss given to the dead by the priest, and the practice 
of dressing the body in rich garments. 

Certain Jewish customs were adopted by the 
Church as “pious practices ” (as distinguished from 

Cc 


34. FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


articles of faith) because of their association with the 
burial of their Divine Founder. An instance of 
this is the ceremonious cleansing of the body after 
death. St. Chrysostom writes of this as being 
“hallowed in the person of our Lord ” * (whose body 
was washed as soon as it was taken from the Cross). 
To the Christians this Jewish custom (the special 
obligation of a son to his father’s body) signified that 
the dead, freed from the stain of sin by the 
Sacraments, might be received into Heaven “ where 
no unclean thing may enter.” 

The charitable St. Martin took particular care to 
search out the dead bodies of the poor and destitute, 
and we are told, “ Never failed of washing them 
with fair water.” ” 

Jewish funeral customs are sufficiently interest- 
ing to call for special consideration, and it would 
not perhaps be generally supposed that simplicity 
was the keynote enjoined for a people who 
notoriously love display, nor can we fasten on them 
our stupid pagan survivals. 

It is strictly ordained that there must be no 
adornment of the plain wooden coffin used by the 
Jew, nor may flowers be placed inside or outside. 
Plumes, velvet palls and the like, are strictly 
prohibited, and all show and display of wealth 
discouraged; moreover, the synagogue holds itself 
responsible for the arrangements for burial,* dis- 
pensing with the services of the “ Dismal Trade.” 
Fixed and reasonable charges are made for services 
rendered. For anything like this admirable com- 
mercial “undertaking”? we must look in our own 
country to the olden days of the trade guilds. The 
guild supplied a hearse, such as will be presently 

1 EKighty-fourth Homily on St. John.” 
2 Pierre Muret, Trans. P. Lorraine, ‘‘ Funeral Rites, Ancient 


and Modern.”’ 
3 Leopold Wagner, ‘‘ Manners, Customs and Observances.’’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL — 35 


described, also a pall, bier, candles, etc. These 
articles were collectively owned, and held always 
at the disposal of those of the fraternity who might 
have need of them; they might, moreover, be 
borrowed by the members for the use of friends, in 
which case a toll was taken of a certain quantity of 
wax, which would be made up into candles as 
required. In some parishes in England to-day a 
bier and a pall are still kept for the use of 
parishioners, to which was added at one time a coffin 
in which the shrouded body was carried to the grave, 
and from whence it would be removed at the 
grave side, the coffin being returned for a further 
occasion. 

No doubt the origin of the custom of washing, 
anointing and clothing the corpse in garments 
suitable to its rank was instituted in the dim ages, 
when it was believed that the departed required such 
attentions to enable them to appear at their best in 
a future material state. Handed down to later 
times the Christian put his own interpretation to the 
practice which he had adopted. 

The primary doctrine of the Resurrection of the 
body somewhat crudely interpreted presupposed the 
resurrection of the clothes by the old force of 
associated ideas. This led to a continuance of a 
tradition which we have by no means forsaken 
to-day. Thus we still array in their robes of office, 
kings, monks, nuns and priests, as well as soldiers, 
statesmen, and others who wear a distinctive dress, 
whilst on the Continent great satisfaction has been 
derived from the thought of appearing before the 
Creator in the inevitable evening dress, apparently 
with a view to impressing Him with a sense of the 
social standing of his creatures so arrayed. As a 
somewhat happy contrast to this, one is inclined to 
admire the humility of the Greek church, whose 


36 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


“religious” are buried naked, with the exception 
of a hair cloth, as a sign of a life of penance. 

In the matter of dressing the dead, the same 
customs do not apply everywhere—some only cover 
the body with a winding sheet, with the exception of 
the priests, who are robed in their “ecclesiastical 
ornaments,” as the bodies of the martyrs were 
ordered to be arrayed in a “fair surplice.” Pope 
Gregory even finds fault with some of his pre- 
decessors for having such honours done to their 
bodies, which were the special privilege of the 
martyrs. In Italy the dead were wrapped in the 
cloaks they wore in life, “which was considered 
honourable and done in the first century.” * 

Muret further reminds us that it was “ an ancient 
Christian custom to perfume the body in com- 
memoration of the spices in which the body of the 
Saviour was wrapped, and that the pagans, who 
much prized perfume and used it in their religious 
rites and copiously on their bodies, much chided 
the Christians for wasting precious ointments on 
their dead at the expense of the living.” 

In China, where rank is so deeply respected, the 
clothing of the dead is a very costly and elaborate 
proceeding. According to social standing the 
corpse must be provided with anything up to the 
fifty suits due to a ruler, for whom upper and lower 
garments are used. ‘he student comes in for a 
rich assortment of black silk robes in recognition 
of his learning, which is held very honourably by 
the Chinese. 

It is hardly necessary to add that despite the 
liberal contributions of friends, known as “helps,” 
a family is frequently ruined, as is sometimes the 
case in our own country, in paying what are supposed 


1 Pierre Muret, Trans. P. Lorraine, ‘‘ Funeral Rites, Ancient 
and Modern.”’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL — 387 


to be “ proper marks of respect” to their deceased 
relatives. Whilst the most expensive thing about 
a man in China is his funeral, the least expensive is 
that of a child. During the old regime, parents 
frequently wrapped the dead infants in lengths of 
matting and laid them at certain street corners, 
where a man passed with a black cart drawn by a 
black cow every morning, and collected them for 
burial.’ 

In early days in England the bodies of the poor 
were committed to the grave practically naked, or 
at best wrapped in a shroud of linen, and only the 
prosperous were allowed to be “ chested,” as it was 
called. Cox mentions a curious instance of this as 
late as 1608, when one John Skerry, “a poore man 
that died in The Place Stable (Poyning, Surrey), 
and being brought half naked with his face bare, 
the parson would not burye him soe, but first he 
gave a sheete and caused him to be sacked therein, 
and they buried him more Christian-like, being much 
erieved to see him brought soe unto the grave, and 
at this time did one Thatcher dwell at The Place” 
(or manor house).” 

In the year 1666 an Act came into force insisting 
that all persons should be buried in a shroud com- 
posed of woollen material in place of linen 
previously used. 

It would seem that this new law was easily and 
frequently evaded, for in the year 1678 and again in 
1680 it was found necessary to amend it; a provision 
was added that a certificate must be given by the 
relative of the deceased person, in the form of an 
affidavit, declaring that a woollen shroud had been 
used at the burial. 

If we compare the population of England at 


1Tsaac Taylor Headland, ‘‘ Home Life in China.’’ 
? J. Chas, Cox, ‘‘ The Parish Registers of England.”’ 


38 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


that period with the population to-day, the impetus 
which this law gave to the paper trade, which it was 
designed to assist, is very remarkable. It will also 
give some idea of the value of the costly hard woods 
and metal which we consign to the earth every year. 
We are told that as a result of this law, it was com- 
puted that no less than 200,000 lbs. of rag were 
saved from corruption in the grave. In order to 
enforce the regulations, a heavy fine was imposed 
for non-compliance, but the gay decking of the 
corpse is a custom which dies hard, and persons of 
means were often found to pay the penalty rather 
than submit to what they considered an zxdiguity. 
The parish churches were obliged to keep a special 
register of burials for the purpose, and an affidavit 
had to be made before a Justice of the Peace or a 
clergyman that the new law had been duly complied 
with. The certificate was signed by two witnesses. 
A bait was offered, consisting of a part of the fine, 
to any informer who could produce evidence that 
the Act in any particular case had been evaded.* 

These laws were not repealed till the reign of 
George III, 1814. 

In the year 1700 there appears an entry in the 
parish register of Eye, that the executors of one 
Thomas Deye were fined five pounds for burying a 
body wrapped in linen. Cox gives the following 
extracts from one of the special registers : 


“Well wrapped in a shirt of woollen and was 
let down into his dormitory with that vestment about 
his corpse, to the great satisfaction of the law 
enjoining that habiliment as convenient for the 
dead.” 

“Francis Pickerings was shrouded only in a 


1 Capes, ‘‘ Rural Life in Hampshire.”’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL _ 39 


winding sheet made of the fleece of good fat 
mutton.” * 


For the same reason that it was once the custom 
in Ireland to remove the nails from the coffin 
immediately before lowering it into the grave (in 
order that the dead might have no difficulty in 
freeing themselves on the day of Resurrection), so 
we find that the shroud or winding sheet was often 
loosened from the feet and hands, lest its tight folds 
should prevent a speedy egress at the all important 
moment. A special costume for burial was 
provided, and in some cases prepared during life, 
by the women, so that there might be no doubt about 
its being ready when required at death. 

The Norwegian peasant makes her burial 
garment from a special material, and reverently 
hoards it up for use at her death, whilst not 
infrequently in this country poor women who are 
forced by circumstances to spend their last days in 
the workhouse take with them a nightdress and a 
pair of white stockings in order that they may 
appear “respectable” at their death. 

The following is a description of a curious 
ancient Jewish dress for a corpse in the seventeenth 
century: A special pair of drawers was made by 
women who did this work as a charity. After this 
had been put on the body a skirt was added, a frill 
of fine linen, a taled or cloak, square in form with 
ribbons suspended, and on the head a white cap.’ 

That white stockings are still considered in 
certain spheres of life as fitting for the special use 
of the dead the following incident will show, which 
recently came to the writer’s notice. A little girl, 
whose mother kept a small linen draper’s shop in 


1J. Chas. Cox, ‘‘ The Parish Registers of England.”’ 
? Leon Modema, ‘‘ Costumes des Juifs,’’ Trans. Simon. 


40 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


London, was invited to a children’s party. Her 
scanty wardrobe contained a muslin frock suitable 
to the occasion, but her heart was set on a pair of 
white stockings to complete the effect. Having 
seen the necessity stocked for sale in the shop, she 
ventured to ask for the loan of a pair, a request that 
was angrily refused by her mother, who explained 
that they were sold only for the use of the dead. 

In England, till the middle of the sixteenth 
century, it was ordained by the Church that if a 
child should die within a month of its baptism it 
must be buried in its chrisom. ‘The chrisom was 
the prototype of the baptismal robe. It was 
originally made in such a way that the priest might 
readily anoint the infant with the chrism or holy oil 
used at baptism, with the sign of the cross between 
the shoulders and on the breast. “This garment was 
worn till the seventh day to protect the places so 
anointed, or till such time as the mother was 
“churched.” For the same purpose a band of linen 
was at one time bound round the head of children 
and kept there for eight days after confirmation, of 
which the white band often worn by boys round the 
arm when they are confirmed is a probable survival. 
In the event of the child dying before the stated 
time, it was known as a “chrisom”’ child, and it 
was decreed that it should be buried in its chrisom, 
bound round the body by swaddling bands, in place 
of the shroud. It might be mentioned here, that 
whilst we generally associate swaddling clothes with 
children, it was once a term used to describe the 
strips of material bound round the shroud of 
children or adults. There are a few memorial 
brasses to be found in our churches, depicting 
“chrisom children” shrouded in this curious 
manner. 

The burial of children has always differed in 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL 41 


some ways from that of adults. The Romans, for 
instance, buried them in the ground under the eaves 
of their houses, because it was thought that the infant 
spirit, being near its parents, would not “walk” as 
it otherwise might do if interred far from its home. 

For the same reason, even to-day, we generally 
bury the body of a very young or unchristened child 
in the coffin of a woman adult, in order that the little 
ghost may not torment its parents with reproachful 
“lamentings”; for the origin of the practice has 
nothing to do with the mere economy of burial 
charges. 

We saw that the Chinese wrapped their dead 
babes in old matting, but something very similar 
has been done much nearer home. 

In France, some years before the revolution, 
De Braz tells us that the parents of a dead child 
used to make a little receptacle for its body by 
stripping the bark from a chestnut tree, which 
they bound round the infant with broom. So 
common was the habit that it became necessary to 
pass a law making the priest the responsible person 
to see that a practice which ruined so many trees 
was discontinued. ‘The priest of each parish was 
instructed to announce the new regulations from the 
pulpit in the various provinces. The penalty for 
non-compliance was a very heavy fine.” 

This bark shroud or coffin was an instance of the 
use of something which answered both purposes. 
Binding the body with reeds or sewing it up in the 
hide of an animal are other instances. The body 
of Henry I was salted to preserve it and sewn into 
an ox hide and brought to England for burial. 

Cox reminds us that the book of Common Prayer 
certainly anticipates uncoffined burial, as the word 
coffin is not even mentioned, reference being made 


1 De Braz, ‘‘ La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons.’’ 


4.2 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


only to the “corpse” or the “ body ”—thus, “ the 
earth shall be cast upon the body.” 

In Wheatley’s book on the Common Prayer 
(1710) occurs the comment, “When the body is 
stripped of all but its grave-clothes, and is going 
to be put into the grave,” etc." A trace of inter- 
ment without a coffin at the present day may be 
found in the traditional rites of the orthodox gipsy, 
who prefers to be shrouded in his best suit of clothes 
—turned inside out—and buried at the cross-road, 
or under a hedge with no other covering. 

That “chested burtal” was at one time con- 
sidered as an attribute of wealth or social standing 
may be gathered from the following ancient regula- 
tion taken from the records of the historic town of 
Rye (Sussex): 

In the year 1580 the City Fathers decreed that 
“no person who shall die within the Port of Rye 
under the degree of Mayor Jurat or common 
councilman, or of their wives, except such person 
as the Mayor shall give licence for and being paid to 
the Mayor for the use of the poor, shall be chested 
or coffined to their burial, and if any carpenter or 
joiner make any chest or cofhn for any person to be 
buried (other than for the persons aforesaid 
excepted) he shall be fined ten shillings for every 
cofin so made by him.” * 

When a coffin was used for the poor it was only 
for the purposes of conveying the corpse from the 
house where the death took place to the graveside. 
There the body would be removed and placed in the 
grave, covered only by the shroud or winding sheet. 

In Scotland, about the sixteenth century, a kind 
of combined coffin and bier was in use. It consisted 
of a wooden receptacle, one side of which was 


+ J. Chas. Cox, ‘‘ The Parish Registers of England.”’ 
2 *¢ Records of the Town of Rye.”’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL = 438 


hinged as a lid, from which the corpse was removed 
and lowered into the grave by means of ropes. 

Andrews also describes the “death hamper,” as 
it was called, where it was in use in some parts of 
the Highlands. Three pairs of loop handles were 
provided, through which iron bars were passed to 
enable it to be conveniently carried. After it had 
been lowered into the grave, it was turned over to 
relieve it of its load, and brought to the surface 
again for use on a future occasion.” 

Simpler still was a contrivance once used in 
Brittany. It consisted of a top and bottom plank, 
one over and one supporting the body. Blocks of 
wood held them together, two being nailed close to 
the neck of the corpse, two under the arms, and two 
near the ankles, thus forming a rough crate without 
sides rather than a chest. 

“To chest” or place the body in a coffin is an 
expression frequently to be met with in early English 
records. Thus we read in the Bible, “ He (Joseph) 
dieth and 1s chested.” * 

In countries where earth-burial could be avoided, 
a coffin would be of little importance in preserving 
the body from decay, a natural or artificial cave being 
used in which the body would rest on a ledge or 
shelf, without any covering except the grave clothes. 

We find the cave habit perpetuated in the use 
of stone coffins, many examples of which have been 
unearthed in this country. When suitable materials 
were not available from which to construct such a 
coffin, small slabs of stone were built round about 
the body as a protection such as we find in early 
Christian cemeteries. 

The stone coffin was indeed more nearly related 
to the tomb, for owing to its weight it was not 


1W. M. Andrews, ‘‘ Bygone Church Life in Scotland.”’ 
2 Bible, Gen. 1. 26, 


44 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


possible to conveniently carry it any distance, so 
that the body could be brought to the coffin and 
deposited therein. 

Let us look for a moment at the origin of thus 
boxing the body instead of the simple practice of 
placing it, shrouded only, in direct contact with the 
earth. Undoubtedly it originated in the attempt to 
preserve the corpse as long as possible from decay, 
and the reason for so doing was in Christian 
countries anyway, the belief in a final material 
resurrection of the body. 

We have seen that.the poor looked upon the 
coffin as a luxury, which had, 1n some instances, even 
been denied to them by law. It is still regarded 
by meaner minds as a symbol of social status and 
respectability, and the undertaker finds in the 
poorer districts a ready demand for the polished 
oak and gaudy “furniture” which is the pride of 
his profession. In support of this the following 
true story was told by the late Canon Barnet. 

Some slum children were taken for a day’s outing 
to the country, and later, their experiences formed 
the subject of an essay at school. One little girl 
appeared to have been much impressed by the trees, 
and thus described the oak: “ From the oak tree 
is made coffims and other expensive articles.” * 

We can hardly believe that even the most bigoted 
could suppose that burial without a coffin rendered 
the poor at a disadvantage in answering the Roll 
Call on the Day of Judgment, for we have an 
example from the most orthodox source to disprove 
this. The Trappist Monk wrapped only in his 
habit for a shroud, with his head and face protected 
by his cowl, is reverently committed by his brothers 
to the earth in the little cemetery belonging to their 
Order, without any coffin or other protection what- 


1 Canon Barnett, ‘‘ Practical Socialism.”’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL § 45 


ever, and this could hardly be the case if there was 
the slightest reason to suppose that its welfare in 
the future state should be imperilled. Undoubtedly 
the custom of preserving the body as long as possible 
from decay is one of those unauthoritative conven- 
tions which we follow without attempting to define 
our reasons or real feelings in the matter. 

Needless to say the “ Trade” is all in favour of 
a substantial and “ beautiful” (?) casket, to cast into 
the grave, with such expensive furniture fittings and 
linings as can be thrust upon the relatives at a time 
when they are not in the spirit to bargain. 

If we estimated the value of the oak, elm and 
other valuable hard woods which we commit to the 
earth every year, to rot and decay, to say nothing of 
the value of brass and other metal which goes with 
them, we must see how truly appalling is this waste. 
Our folly in this respect forms one of the soundest 
claims which the advocates of cremation put before 
us, from the purely utilitarian standpoint. Taking 
the annual number of deaths in England and Wales 
as something like 260,oo0o—translate that into 
pounds sterling and you will have very largely 
under-estimated the value of the wood alone, which 
is used for coffins during that period. Prodigal as 
we are in our use of timber for various commercial 
necessary purposes, which we ruthlessly destroy and 
never systematically replant, we at least manufacture 
articles which may perhaps last for generations, 
whilst wood used for coffins, from a utilitarian stand- 
point, may just as well have been burnt. 

Even in a damp soil a coffin made of oak or elm, 
with or without a leaden shell, will preserve the 
human remains for a very considerable period. 
Elm is largely used, both for economy and its 
peculiar properties of resisting the action of rot 
when in the ground. 


46 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


In light sandy soils decomposition is a very much 
slower process. Some earth has the peculiar 
property of mummifying the body. The placing of 
antiseptic carbolic sawdust, etc., in the coffin greatly 
tends to preservation, whilst the use of india-rubber 
and other such expedients is the outcome of foolish 
sentiment which seeks to delay the reasonable and 
inevitable courses of Nature in reclaiming what 
she has lent to us. Not only are such practices 
illogical, but opposed to the laws of sanitation; 
nor are they warranted by any precept, civil or 
ecclesiastical. 

Whilst preservation, including the ancient 
science of embalming, is (except in certain rare 
cases) unnecessary and objectional, we must not go 
to the opposite extreme and bury our dead with 
quicklime or corrosives, which might tend to render 
more difficult the detection of crime. Very large 
sums of money have been paid for costly coffins 
elaborately carved and silver mounted, whilst the 
use of velvet, swansdowns, paddings and pinking, 
show us a remnant of the hard dying belief that the 
dead are merely sleeping in their graves, and require 
such material comforts. 

The orthodox Jew believed this very really, and 
also that the actual process of decay was in the 
nature of a punishment, the pains of which the dead 
were called upon to endure in satisfaction of sins 
committed during their lifetime. We are not there- 
fore surprised to find secret efforts often made with 
a view to shortening this unhappy period. Earth 
was placed in the coffin, and holes bored in the wood 
to accelerate decomposition. Perhaps as a claim to 
special consideration the Jews sometimes made their 
coffins from the boards of a table at which the poor 
had been fed.” 


1+ The Jewish Encyclopedia.’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL § 47 


It has been said that the very customs to which 
we cling, that are objectionable, have no relation to 
any doctrine imposed upon us by our religious 
beliefs. The special preservation of the bodies of 
the dead, when carried beyond an occasional 
necessity (where certain diseases have produced an 
extremely rapid mortification) is all part of an 
ignorant literal conception of the doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body. That such a materialistic 
conception was once very general is easy to 
determine; for instance, teeth were often carefully 
preserved, as they were shed in the natural course 
of events, during lifetime, in order that they might 
eventually be buried with the body and, as dis- 
membered parts, be readily available at the “ Last 
Day.” If such precautions were necessary the 
matter presents many problems, such as must have 
troubled the mind of the Sunday School scholar, 
who inquired in his perplexity where missionaries 
went to when they died, and being assured that they 
undoubtedly gained admission to the celestial state, 
the child asked “if cannibals went to Heaven also.” 
The horrified teacher denied so liberal a doctrine. 
“Well, then, what happens to the missionary who 
gets eaten by the cannibals?” was the logical 
response. 

Many cases are on record where a coffin has been 
purchased during the lifetime of a person of 
eccentric habits, and often served as a bed, in order 
that the owner might become accustomed to the use 
of the receptacle in which the body would repose 
during the long sleep. It is well known that 
Madame Sarah Bernhardt kept a coffin, and was 
photographed in it in her boudoir. Whatever may 
have been the motive of the celebrated actress, 
others have done the same thing, in the sense of 
self-repression, as the monks of some Orders daily 


48 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


dig a spadeful of the earth which is eventually to 
cover their remains, as an act of humility. 

Evelyn mentions attending the funeral of a 
master shipwright, and he tells us “it was the 
custom of this good man to rise in the night and to 
pray, kneeling in his own coffin, which he had by 
him for many years.” * 

In China, when a son wishes to make a hand- 
some and welcome gift to his parents, he presents 
them with a coffin, which is often to be found in the 
houses of the middle classes. It may be made of 
fine wood or cypress, and it is often very costly. 
The Chinese coffin is of tremendous weight, and 
according to a rule prescribed for persons of different 
degrees of dignity, the outer shell may be as much 
as eight inches in thickness, the inner shell six 
inches, and the innermost four inches. 

The correct measurement of a student’s coffin is 
six inches in thickness, and even the poor are buried 
in wood five inches for the outer and four inches for 
the inner shell. Asa rule, plain white unvarnished 
wood is used for the purpose.’ 

In Mrs. Hugh Fraser’s charming account of her 
travels in Japan, she gives the following description 
of the funeral procession of a Prince which she 
witnessed, and thus describes the conveyance of the 
body to burial : 


“The bier was a lovely shape, like a small 
temple, all carved out of spotless white wood. It 
did not look like a coffin but like a closed litter, 
with beautiful chased golden mountings and fresh 
green bamboo blinds closing the litter windows. 
The roof rose at its corners in delicate ornament, 
and tassels of pure white silk hung against the 
blinds. 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 
2Tsaac Taylor Headland, ‘‘ Home Life in China.” 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL § 49 


“The bier was carried by fifty men by means of 
poles crossed and recrossed. This covered a double 
coffin made of white wood.” * 


The universal custom of burying articles of 
various kinds with the body has been responsible for 
our gradual enlightenment as to the habits and 
surroundings of those who inhabited the world 
before us, from the most remote periods. 

It is from the tombs that we have discovered 
many historical facts which tradition had either mis- 
used or entirely forgotten. We are indeed richer 
to-day in our knowledge of the past than those who 
lived many centuries nearer to events. Not only 
articles buried with the body, but the bones and 
impressions left by the body in the soil long after 
the tissues had crumbled into dust, continue to 
reward the patient investigator with such informa- 
tion as enables him to piece together, not only the 
mode of life, but the actual appearance of the dead, 
whose burrows he uncovers. 

In many cases traditions have been verified in a 
startling manner. Some parts of a suit of gilded 
armour were recovered in recent years from a place 
where tradition only had handed down a story 
through the centuries of a knight of great valour so 
equipped. 

The origin of the practice of burying weapons 
and utensils with the dead is obviously the outcome 
of the belief that the departed spirit would require 
such material necessities in the “after life.” 
Weapons of battle and the chase, domestic pottery 
and the like are most frequently recovered, owing 
to the time-resisting properties of the flint, bronze or 
glass from which they were generally constructed. 
Food, if buried, would quickly decay, but the 


Mrs, Hugh Fraser, ‘‘A Diplomatist’s Wife in Japan.” 
D 


50 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


earthenware pots or glass vessels in which it was 
stored, remain in evidence of the practice. 

The discovery of a number of tusks at Llanbede 
(Vale of Conway) shows us that the wild boar once 
roamed through our forests, whilst such treasures 
as drinking horns, metal shield bosses and remnants 
of military equipment not uncommonly reward the 
labours of the excavator. 

Apart from private collections, there is hardly a 
museum, however modest may be its aims, that does 
not contain numerous examples of such objects dug 
from the earth, and nearly always from the site of 
the graves of our long forgotten ancestors. 

To catalogue these treasures would be altogether 
outside the scope of our subject, for we are rather 
committed to learn the reason of their presence with 
the dead than to study them as a matter of 
archeological interest. The axe for slaughter, the 
dagger or meat-knife, and the hammer for breaking 
bones, tell their own story. Such simple necessities 
as these we shall expect to find in plenty. That 
they should accompany the dead in their travels to 
the spirit-world is consistent with the belief which 
we know to have been held by all primitive peoples. 

We find other objects in the graves which are 
yet more worthy of our notice, for they speak to us 
of superstitions which we may scorn in the light of 
our superior knowledge, but which we are not 
ashamed to perpetuate, largely because we have so 
dim a conception of the beliefs which we profess. 

I: ver since the exchange of goods by barter gave 
place to the more convenient practice of trading by 
tokens, money has been buried with the corpse. 
This habit has been common to all nations. If the 
hunter required his arrows and a spear with which 
to support himself in the future state, the trader 
would feel very helpless were he not buried with 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL 51 


money with which to meet expenses and purchase 
his necessities. 

Accustomed to be taxed on every possible 
occasion by grasping officials, even the cultured 
Greek took with him on his last journey coins with 
which to reward Charon for the safe conduct of his 
soul, over the dark waters of the Styx. 

The Chinaman has much the same belief, and 
for safe keeping a coin is placed in the mouth of 
the corpse in order that it may be readily produced 
when the inevitable demand for a fee is made by 
some ghostly janitor. 

Whilst Christian precept has found a spiritual 
meaning for many traditional practices, which, thus 
sanctified, have been carried forward from pagan 
times—as in the matter of the orientation of the 
body—it is to be feared that even these have become 
as foreign and meaningless to the modern mind as 
the pagan custom so continued. ‘The matter of 
burying money with the dead is no exception. 

The medizval Christian writer finds “in the 
universal custom of closing the eyes and mouth of 
the corpse directly death has taken place the poetical 
thought that “ the dead may look no more upon this 
imperfect life, now that they have seen the glory 
of the world to come”’—and in closing the mouth 
“that they may taste no more of anything of this 
world, but rather use their mouths for praising God 
in Heaven.” * 

It is very doubtful if even the modern Christian 
sees anything of the sort in this traditional practice, 
but it is remarkable to note that the custom of 
placing coins on the eyes of the dead, which was 
very generally done a generation ago, is still to be 
met with. This is indeed a relic of the primitive 


1 Pierre Muret, Trans. P. Lorraine, ‘‘ Funeral Rites, Ancient 
and Modern.’’ 


52 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


superstition that money, so urgent a necessity in 
this life, cannot readily be dispensed with in the 
future state. Quantities of silver and copper coins 
have been unearthed at various times in English 
churchyards, and it need hardly be said how 
valuable a record these have been as a guide to 
the period at which interment took place. In 
China, at one time, money, clothes and other things 
of value were burnt as a means of passing them on 
for the use of the departed spirit; but so great was 
the expense that, in more recent years, imitations 
made of paper were substituted. 

As the funeral procession of a Chinese dignitary 
passes along the streets, round pieces of paper with 
a square hole in the centre in imitation of the copper 
cash used in the country, are scattered broadcast. 
It is intended for the future use of the departed 
official, at whose shrine offerings of gold and silver 
paper ingots will later be made. With the same 
intention, coins, jewels and precious ointments were 
lavishly placed to be burnt on the funeral pyre of 
the Roman of position. 

The hammer has thus been mentioned as one 
of the objects commonly buried with primitive man, 
and we find this custom continued under another 
guise, namely, that the dead may use it to announce 
their arrival by “knocking with it on the gates of 
Purgatory.” * This quaint belief is still to be met 
with in Ireland. 

At the funeral of Zachariah Smith, a gipsy who 
was buried in Yorkshire a few years ago, in the 
traditional manner of his tribe, the following articles 
accompanied him for his convenience in the future 
state: An extra suit of clothes, his watch and chain, 
four pocket-handkerchiefs, a hammer and a candle.” 


1 Walter Johnson, ‘*‘ Byways in British Archexology.”’ 
2 Rev. Hall, ‘‘ Gipsy Customs.”’ 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL 53 


Possibly with the same idea, that of announcing 
his arrival, it was a practice in Scotland to put a bell 
under the head of the corpse, and on the breast a 
vessel containing salt typifying immortality, and 
bread, the corruptible body. 

Like the pages of history the graves of the dead 
sometimes give us touching evidence of frailties 
common to all mankind. What matter the achieve- 
ments of King Alfred, as warrior, lawgiver or scribe ! 
Enough that it is recorded of him that he burnt 
the scolding widow’s cakes, and in so doing 
endeared himself for ever to the youthful mind. 
So in delving amongst dry and forgotten bones we 
shall sometimes find trinkets and treasured personal 
possessions—vanities which bridge the centuries 
and strike a deeply sympathetic chord of kinship in 
our hearts. 

The skeleton of a mother of our race folding 
fleshless arms round the little bones of the child 
she bore, or a skull remarkable amongst a thousand 
others, the arrow-head still resting where it found 
its mark. What could be more human than the 
Swedish custom of burying a looking-glass with 
unmarried women, in order that they might arrange 
their loosely coiled tresses to appear to advantage 
on the day of Resurrection. The fact that married 
women braid their hair rendered unnecessary any 
such precaution in their case.’ 

In the Egyptian tomb, happiness in the after 
life of the children was assured by burying with 
them the toys with which they had played during 
their earthly sojourn. 

In examining the spoils of the graveyard, we 
must distinguish between such things as were 

1England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘‘ Burial Customs”? (Curious 


Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm. 
Andrews, 


54 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


intended for the use of the dead and articles com- 
mitted to the earth as symbols only, such, for 
instance, as wheat—a very ancient token of resurrec- 
tion—or the scarab beetle so frequently found in 
Egypt, and still more frequently manufactured for 
the tourist trade. The connection between the 
scarab and resurrection is not at first apparent, for 
it is based on a misconception. ‘This insect was 
popularly supposed to create its kind from the earth. 
It may still be seen working in the sand as the early 
Egyptian saw it, rolling up little balls of dung, 
which, presently bursting, releases its progeny 
created from the earth, as the poetic Eastern mind 
supposed, having overlooked the simple fact that 
the beetle had laid a tiny egg, round which the dung 
was moulded, thus providing a hot-bed for the 
purposes of fertilization.’ 

Wheat, frequently buried by the Egyptian, 1s 
plentifully found engraven on the early Christian 
monuments, for to the Christian mind it holds a 
double meaning. Whilst the germ of life it con- 
tains is significant of resurrection, as the basis of 
bread, it was ever associated with the Sacraments. 
In quite recent years in England, it was the custom 
to distribute a sheaf of corn amongst the mourners 
at a funeral. 

It was once a common practice to place an hour- 
glass in the coffin to represent the “running out of 
the sands of time.” Howlett thinks it probable that 
little hour-glasses were distributed amongst the 
mourners, to be thrown into the open grave.’ 

Perhaps one of the most remarkable instances of 
the hard-dying belief that the soul requires material 
assistance in the after life is a Russian custom of 

? Grant Allen, ‘“‘ Nature’s Workshop.’’ 

*England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘‘ Burial Customs’ (Curious 


Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm, 
Andrews, 





LHE SCAPUCINES VAUIELS = PALERMO; 





A THIRTEENTH CENTURY STONE COFFIN, CUT OUT OF A SINGLE BLOCK, RECENTLY 
UNEARTHED ON THE SITE OF MERTON PRIORY CHURCH, WIMBLEDON. IT 
CONTAINED THE SKELETON OF A MAN. 


a. 
Bt ee 


if 


* 
= 


Ae 


wi 





PREPARATION FOR BURIAL 55 


giving a parchment certificate of good conduct, 
which is placed in the hands of the corpse, to He 
presented as a credential to assure ready admittance 
into the realms of bliss. 

Eventually the Christian Church forbade the 
interment of what were known as “ grave goods ” 
with the body, but an exception was made in favour 
of kings and priests, who were allowed to retain 
their robes and symbols of office. 

Amongst the many rich finds which have been 
made in the tombs of Royalty, was the treasure dis- 
covered accidentally by a poor labourer in the 
resting-place of Childerie | at Tournay. Here was 
unearthed a cornelian Etruscan scarab, probably a 
valued amulet, a divining ball and a signet-ring. 
There were also recovered three hundred golden 
bees, with wings inlaid with a red stone, which it is 
supposed formed ornaments on the harness of his 
horse, the skeleton of which, together with that of 
his page, were lying near their royal master.’ 

The practice of giving the material necessities 
of life to the dead, in the belief that their require- 
ments in the spirit world were the same as in the 
sphere from which they had departed, leads very 
naturally to the belief that the wife and slaves of 
the rich man should accompany him also. Hence 
we find that in the case of a person of rank or 
position it has been the custom in the past to 
slaughter not only the man’s wife, but his page, 
slaves and personal attendants. 

So deep was the belief of a material hereafter 
that we find no horror expressed, as a rule, on the 
part of the victims, who would consider it an honour 
to be selected to accompany their lord on his spiritual 
travels. 

In the Congo, on the death of a native king or 


1W. Jones, F.S.A., ‘‘ Finger Ring Lore.’’ 


56 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


chief, it is the custom for twelve young girls to 
throw themselves into the grave that they may be 
buried with their master. So great is the compett- 
tion for the favour that a fierce fight often ensues 
amongst the claimants, in which some are killed, 
the number of applicants being thus reduced. 

In Mexico, at one time, they buried with the 
king his jester and dwarf for his amusement, a 
number of women for his material consolation, and 
a priest to act as guide in the spiritual realm. Sir 
H. Johnston tells us that when an important Lubu 
dies a young slave is obtained, and his neck having 
been broken by a blow, he is laid by the corpse, 
which it is his duty to attend. Such customs are 
still continued amongst uncivilized peoples, and 
were practised in China under the old regime. 

The horrible rite of self-immolation was common 
in India as late as the year 1829, when “suttee”’ 
was abolished. ‘Till that time the Hindu widow 
voluntarily perished in the flames of the funeral pyre 
at the death of her husband. That it was con- 
sidered an honourable act may be gathered from 
the fact that the word is derived from “sate,” which 
means “a virtuous life.” Credit has been given 
to the British Government for suppressing this 
ancient sacrifice, but although it is true that the 
weight of the English law made it possible to stamp 
out the evil, it is claimed that enlightened native 
opinion first urged the Government to abolish 
‘suttee.” 

The noble Hindu Rajah Ram Mohan Roy is 
said to have been the prime mover in this matter. 
Swami Abhedanana tells us that “self-burning of 
widows was not sanctioned by the Vedic religion, 
but was due to other causes.”” Some say that when 
the Mohammedans conquered India they treated the 
widows of the soldiers so brutally that the women 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL = 57 


preferred death, and voluntarily sought it. In 
order to have Scriptural authority for the rite of 
suttee, the Brahmin priests perverted the mean- 
ing of the Vedic text which thus describes the 
funeral ceremony of the ancient Hindus: “ Rise up, 
woman, thou art lying by one whose life is gone. 
Come, come to the world of the living, away from 
thy husband, and become the wife of him who 
grasps thy hand and is willing to marry thee.” * 
(Rig. Veda Bk. 10, Hymn 18, Verse 8.) 

The Brahmin practice might indeed seem nearer 
to the original intention of the Veda, anyway, it 
enables them to keep up the tradition, but with 
humanitarian methods. When the body of their 
dead is lifted on to the unlighted pyre, the widow 
places herself by the side of the corpse in order to 
demonstrate her willingness to offer herself as a 
victim; one of the near relations then approaches, 
with a bow and arrow, as if to shoot her, but another 
interposes, saying: “Rise up, woman, thou art 
lying by one whose life is gone, come down to the 
world of the living, you who have shared his couch 
and have borne him children.” 

The widow then descends from the pyre, to 
which a torch is afterwards applied. If any further 
assurance is required that the widow has given 
satisfaction and done honour to her husband, the 
funeral oration should bring her comfort, for herein 
she is reminded that “she is not in reality a widow, 
who has gone unweeping to the pyre and who has 
been the wife of so virtuous a man.” By this 
simple expedient everyone is satisfied. 

In the year 1822 an English officer in India was 
present at the funeral of a person of rank whose 
wife was to be sacrificed in accordance with the 
custom of suttee. Seeing the preparations being 


1 Swami Abhedanana, ‘‘ India and Her People.” 


58 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


made, he was much disturbed by the thought of the 
tragedy that he was about to witness. Approach- 
ing the widow, he asked her if she wished to be 
burnt to death, and she assured him that she did. 
Having partly disrobed and taken off her jewellery, 
at a signal given by the priest, she took an affec- 
tionate farewell of her relatives, and was led to 
where her husband’s body was already being con- 
sumed. Scorched by the fierce heat of the flames, 
her courage forsook her, and the poor creature ran 
back and threw herself into a pool of water, from 
which she was dragged again to meet her fate. 
Three times she tore herself away and fled; on the 
third occasion the Englishman could stand it no 
longer, and with great difficulty he stopped the 
proceedings. Needless to say, the natives were 
much incensed by his interference, more especially 
as they believed that a scourge of plague would 
certainly follow so impious an action. Perhaps it 
was well that the poor woman died next day from 
the effects of her burns. 

Where the actual practice of the sacrifice at the 
funeral has ceased to exist, we shall find it carried 
out in symbol. The Egyptians contented them- 
selves by making clay images as a substitute for 
human lives, whilst the Chinese burn figures of 
paper. 

Before we congratulate ourselves that such out- 
rageous superstitions as these can find no echo in 
our customs—absurd as they may be—we might 
look with some suspicion at one or two of our 
observances. Such, for instance, as the fact that 
the widow follows immediately behind the coffin 
in the funeral procession, and is led to take a “last 
look” after the body has been lowered into the 
grave. It may be said that it is natural enough that 
the widow, as chief mourner, shall have a certain 


PREPARATION FOR BURIAL 59 


prominence on this occasion. That there is more in 
this than a mere matter of etiquette is demonstrated 
by the fact that a particular meaning has always been 
connected with her first place in the procession. 
An old Jewish tradition tells us that the widow 
followed next to the body of her husband “ because 
woman brought death into the world.” 

It is, however, unnecessary to labour the point in 
order to connect our modern funeral practices with 
the idea of sacrifice at the grave, for there is no 
doubt whatever as to the origin of a popular military 
custom—still observed—of leading the charger of 
a dead soldier to the grave. 

Soldiers, leader, chief or king, the titles are 
inseparable, and from the earliest times such have 
been buried with special marks of honour, amongst 
which we find the sacrifice of the war horse at the 
graveside, and the interment of its body with its 
master, in order that it might carry him to victory 
in the spirit world. 

Sometimes a sportsman is followed by his 
favourite hunter, which is in some instances buried 
with him, 

Herodotus mentions the slaughter of slaves and 
horses, even the cruel practice of maiming or break- 
ing the foreleg has been resorted to—in order that 
the painful limp thus produced might give to the 
unfortunate animal an appropriate appearance of 
grief. The Turks put mustard seed in the nostrils 
of the poor beast, in order that its tears may be 
taken by the stupid sight-seers as a token of grief 
at the separation. 

Egotistical and selfish people are to be met with 
who leave special instructions that at their death 
their favourite animals are to be shot or poisoned; 


1“ Jewish Encyclopedia,’’ 


60 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


‘as soon as possible after my death, my dogs shall 
be painlessly destroyed,” is a recent example. It 
will be said in favour of the owner that the decree 
may arise from a natural and affectionate desire that 
the animal in question should be saved by this means 
from possible ill-treatment or neglect, but it will be 
found that such wills are nearly always made by 
those who have ample means with which to make a 
provision for the short lives of their pets. 

Even if it be taken for granted that friends and 
relations are not to be trusted with the task, are there 
not institutions enough: which cater for the well- 
being of animals left in their charge? 

For such illogical reasons poor distraught 
mothers frequently murder their children. Is it not 
rather that consciously or unconsciously the old 
tradition creeps in that the spirit of the favourite 
must follow its master to the shades? 


CELA Lier het £V, 


WAKES, MUTES, WAILERS, SIN-EATING, TOTEMISM, 
DEATH-TAXES 


Durine the period between death and burial (which 
varies according to custom and climatic conditions) 
it seems natural enough that the body of a deceased 
person should be kept under close observation, for 
one reason or another, not the least of which is a 
scarcely abandoned hope of a return to conscious- 
ness. The separation and sudden change of con- 
ditions which death has brought with it, will be but 
gradually realized. The friends and relations who 
have so recently been accustomed to tend the sick 
person, now that their ministrations are no longer 
required, will hesitate to leave their charge till the 
moment when the body must inevitably be taken 
from them for the burial. 

Thus, “watching” the dead became a recog- 
nized institution. It was an old Jewish custom to 
place the dead in the sepulchre, which would remain 
unsealed for the space of three days, during which 
period the body was frequently visited by the 
relations in the hope that signs of a return to life 
would be found.* 

In Christian practice the offering of special 
prayers for the deceased at a time when the soul 
might be considered as in need of consolation in 


1“ Jewish Encyclopedia.’’ 
61 


62 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


passing into another state, suggested the gathering 
together of friends and relations, who in the actual 
presence of the body, would pray for the soul of 
the departed and console those who were afflicted 
by the loss. This was the origin of the “wake” or 
“watching.” 

Now there is no human necessity which has not 
nurtured a profession, and we find ample evidence 
of professional watching, not only in the past, but 
even existing to-day, as a recognized means of 
livelihood. So completely did the paid watcher 
take charge of the situation that in Scotland the 
thrifty poor were obliged to shorten the period 
between the death and burial of their dead, in order 
to reduce his charges. The social status of the 
bereaved family was largely estimated by the length 
of time they were able to hold out against the 
exactions of the watcher, but it was considered a 
point of honour to employ the services of this 
functionary. 

“ Lykwake ” or corpse watching for payment is 
still practised by the Jews. 

A case for damages recently came before the 
King’s Bench (1916). A Jewish watcher claiming 
compensation for personal injuries sustained by the 
breaking of a rope in a lift in which he accompanied 
the “client” in his charge, from the ward where he 
died in an infirmary. It transpired in hearing the 
evidence, that two pounds or more could easily be 
earned per week in the profession, without taking 
into account gratuities contributed by grateful 
relatives. 

Many extraordinary customs have resulted from 
the vigil in the chamber of death. Jusserand tells 
us that in the fourteenth century the watchers sought 
to enliven the tedious hours of duty by what was 
known as “rousing the ghost.” This performance 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 68 


seems to have consisted of playing practical jokes 
to frighten the superstitious relatives, and in taking 
various liberties with the corpse. It may have 
originated in attempts to “raise ” the dead, as it Is 
suggestively called; in other words to call back the 
spirit of the departed by certain forms of witch- 
craft or “black magic,” such as were frequently 
attempted in the Middle Ages. This abuse must 
have been very common, and the occasion of great 
scandal, for at the Council of York (held in the year 
1367), “Those guilty games and follies, and all 
those perverse customs which transformed a house 
of tears and prayers into a house of laughing and 
excess,’ were expressly forbidden. 

The Guild of Palmers of Ludlow permitted its 
members to perform the duties of the night-watching 
of the dead only on the understanding that they 
should “abstain from raising apparitions, and from 
indecent games.” * 

In the South of Ireland this folly, in course of 
time, developed into a recognized form of play or 
pantomime, acted at night by the watchers in the 
chamber of death. Here a sham battle took place 
between two of the younger men, one of whom was 
supposed to be eventually killed by the other, and 
then restored to life by a person taking the character 
Gre OrceLcr: \” 

In addition to the play, the more nervous of the 
relatives were scared by the actor, who would mimic 
the voice and gestures of the dead. 

Much the same sort of thing was at one time 
common in Scotland, where the duel was no small 
matter of pretence, for the fighting frequently 
became very violent, and blood flowed copiously.* 

a1 Jusserand, ‘‘ English Wayfaring Life.’’ 


rye Wilde, ‘‘ Ancient Legends of Ireland.’ 


G. Fraser, ‘* The Belief in Immortality and Worship of 
a ek a 


64 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


It need hardly be said that such boisterous horse- 
play was sustained, if not instigated, by the liberal 
libations of various intoxicants and good cheer, 
which the house of mourning was expected to 
provide. Pancakes were considered as especially 
suitable to the occasion, and when, as was often the 
case in village communities, fifty or more persons 
undertook the vigil, it must have been no light 
matter to provide each with his accustomed share. 
The wake began to be looked upon rather in the 
light of an entertainment, and often one member 
from every house in the village would take his turn 
as a matter of right. 

In Ireland bread, cheese and whisky were dis- 
tributed at midnight, after which the fun began. At 
no time are the laws of hospitality more rigorously 
maintained than at the funeral, as we shall presently 
find, when we consider the funeral feast. It was 
quite as unpardonable a breach of etiquette to refuse 
any of the good things provided as it was to limit 
the supply to less than was dictated by custom. In 
Ireland even non-smokers were expected to take at 
least a ceremonial puff or two from the pipe of 
tobacco offered by the host. 

Amongst other interesting observances, it may 
be noted that the watchers were expected to carry 
salt in their pockets, from which they ate from time 
to time. What they were forbidden to do was to 
“light one candle from another,” or to “remove 
any of the ashes from the fire.”* The use of salt 
may be thought in the circumstances to have been 
merely an encouragement to drink the liquors 
generously provided, but we find it constantly used 
for strictly ceremonial purposes in funeral rites. 

In Brittany, where honey formed an important 
part of the midnight repast in the death chamber, 


1 Deeney, ‘‘ Peasant Lore from Gaelic Ireland.’’ 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 65 


a curious superstition existed. A little fly (quite 
distinct in appearance from an ordinary insect) was 
thought to appear on the lips of the corpse, from 
whence it would presently go to the jar of honey, 
from which it would take its fill. The fly was none 
other than the soul of the departed, fortifying itself 
before taking its long journey into the distant 
spirit-world.* 

From the moment that the undertaker “ under- 
takes” the funeral arrangements, he assumes an 
implied professional responsibility for the safe 
keeping of the body. ‘This is the origin of the now 
obsolete practice of posting one or more of his 
miserable minions on the front doorstep of the 
house of mourning. Assuming that expression of 
deep melancholy which, together with a seedy frock- 
coat and a time-worn “topper,” formed a part of 
his stock-in-trade, he mounted guard; supporting a 
dignified attitude by means of a crape-covered 
wand, which he held in his hand. Such a ludicrous 
sight was within living memory quite common in 
this country. 

As we pass the dreary rows of suburban villas, 
now let out in unsavoury tenements—once the pride 
of an earlier generation—we may imagine the for- 
lorn entrances, their knockers swathed in crape, and 
the now neglected doorsteps supporting the 
lugubrious mute. He was in fact the man in 
charge, representing his master. His presence 
produced a thrill of awesome excitement in the 
neighbourhood that gradually gave place to a whole- 
some ridicule, which finally chased the old carrion 
crow from the house of mourning. 

Laugh as we will at the mute, he had a history 
and a pedigree which for longevity would put to 
shame the pretensions of many a noble “house.” 


’ De Braz, ‘‘ La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons.”’ 
E 


66 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


He was a direct descendant of the Roman mime, 
who likewise dressed in black, but wearing a portrait 
mask of wax—aped the mannerisms, not only of the 
deceased, in whose funeral procession he walked, 
but of the defunct members of the family. He was 
selected for the particular occasion in as far as he 
resembled in general appearance the person he was 
called upon to represent. When portraying the 
ancestors, it was intended to convey the idea that 
they had materialized in order to escort their newly 
deceased relative to the underworld.* The masks 
used for the purpose were carefully preserved as 
family heirlooms, and only publicly exhibited at 
funerals. 

Professor Ridgeway traces the origin of the 
tragedy actor to such religious ceremonial rites. He 
was originally a medium of the spirit of the dead, 
and, as such, associated with the practice of the 
worship of the dead.’ 

To-day this historical figure has merged into 
the more useful, if less picturesque, bearer. 
Kattafin or “ Shoulderer”’ as the Jews call him. 

An amusing dispute arose in Paris (1913), where 
the cogue-morits is still of some importance in 
municipal service. As an insight into the manners 
and customs of his kind, it may be worth quoting. 
It appeared that the City Fathers had received many 
complaints as to the unshaven and unkempt appear- 
ance of these officials supplied by the Department; 
the matter was solemnly debated, when it was 
realized that on their slender stipend such relatively 
expensive matters as hair-cutting and shaving could 
hardly be insisted on with any show of justice. 
On the other hand, it was decided that there was 


eh G. Tucker, ‘‘ Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. 
eas <* 


* Professor Ridgeway, British Association, Newcastle. 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 67 


reason for the complaints of the citizens, whose 
petition was suitably acknowledged; forthwith it 
was decreed that these functionaries should be 
trimmed into respectability at the City’s expense. 
That their dishevelled locks, a recognized sign of 
gtief, should be thus trimmed off them, showed a 
want of knowledge of the history of funeral 
practices, for the Romans much prized such tokens 
of the abandonment of despair, and even Biblical 
injunctions are not wanting. 

Certain barber establishments in the city were 
commissioned to tend the cogue-morts free of 
charge-—then the storm broke! That one citizen 
should be thus favoured with municipal patronage 
whilst others were neglected cut at the most cherished 
traditions on which the Republic is based. The 
neglected barbers rose to a man and demanded a 
fair share of the trade. “Give dickets to the coque- 
morts,’ they demanded, “that they may extend 
their patronage to whom they will, rather than 
encourage a pampered minority.” And so the 
matter was settled. 

Even this equitable arrangement was found to 
have its drawbacks in practice, owing to a regrettable 
tendency on the part of the coque-morts to sell their 
tickets and go unshaven as before. 

Women are more given to the display of 
emotional grief than is common amongst men, and 
they have for this reason been much in demand as 
“wailers’”; in this capacity their professional 
shrieks have echoed down the ages. A generation 
ago they were frequently to be heard on the Con- 
tinent, in Wales and Ireland. They too had 
followed the Greek and Roman to his tomb, crying 
and beating their breasts (for suitable remuneration), 
lest the attitude of studied self-repression, con- 


1T. G. Tucker, ‘‘ Rome the Imperial City.” 


68 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


sidered a correct deportment for mourners of rank, 
might be misinterpreted by the dead, who were 
believed to be ever ready to avenge the slightest 
sign of indifference on the part of those they left 
behind them. No doubt the harsh and discordant 
lamentations of these wailing women were much 
appreciated, their wild gestures seen by the flicker- 
ing torchlight giving a certain dramatic atmosphere 
to the occasion, which would be dear to the Roman 
heart. 

Not less effective the thrice repeated ceremonial 
farewell with which the wailers signalled the close 
of the ceremony. Even now, in Corsica, where 
emotions are quickly stirred, the wailing woman 
carries on her traditional duties with a fierceness 
which is only equalled by the efforts of her sisters 
amongst primitive people. Tearing their hair, 
rending their garments, and beating their breasts 
till the blood flows in their frenzy, they exhort the 
mourners to avenge such smouldering feuds and 
insults as death may have been the occasion of 
reviving. Like the Romans of old, three times they 
call the dead by name; their hair dishevelled and 
uttering unearthly shrieks, they circle round the 
body of the dead in measured caracole.* In the 
Fast the custom is still in evidence, where at Jewish 
funerals the frantic remorse which is assumed, is 
heightened, should it show any signs of flagging, 
by the banging of drums. ‘This further custom is 
perhaps added as the fruit of a commendable desire 
to give full value for their fee, and in lieu of the 
common practice of self-inflicted physical violence 
—for this is forbidden in the forty-fifth “ prohibitive 
commandment” which restricts the Jews from 
“lacerating themselves for the dead.” 

A less known but even more remarkable 


1 J. E Rossi, ‘‘ Les Corses.’’ 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 69 


functionary, whose professional services were 
once considered necessary to the dead, is the 
sin-eater. Savage tribes have been known to 
slaughter an animal on the grave, in the belief that 
it would take upon itself the sins of the dead. In 
the same manner, it was the province of the human 
scapegoat to take upon himself the moral trespasses 
of his client—and whatever the consequences might 
be in the after life—in return for a miserable fee 
and a scanty meal. ‘That such a creature should 
be unearthed from a remote period of pagan 
history would be surprising enough, but to find 
reliable evidence of his existence in the British 
Isles a hundred years ago is surely very much more 
remarkable. 

Professor Evans of the Presbyterian College, 
Carmarthen, actually saw a sin-eater about the 
year 1825, who was then living near Llanwenog, 
Cardiganshire. Abhorred by the superstitious 
villagers as a thing unclean, the sin-eater cut 
himself off from all social intercourse with his 
fellow creatures by reason of the life he had 
chosen; he lived as a rule in a remote place by 
himself, and those who chanced to meet him 
avoided him as they would a leper. This 
unfortunate was held to be the associate of evil 
spirits, and given to witchcraft, incantations and 
unholy practices; only when a death took place 
did they seek him out, and when his purpose 
was accomplished they burned the wooden bowl 
and platter from which he had eaten the food 
handed across, or placed on the corpse for his 
consumption. 

Howlett mentions sin-eating as an old custom 
in Hereford, and thus describes the practice: “ The 
corpse being taken out of the house, and laid on 
a bier, a loaf of bread was given to the sin-eater over 


70 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the corpse, also a maga-bowl of maple, full of beer. 
These consumed, a fee of sixpence was given him 
for the consideration of his taking upon himself 
the sins of the deceased, who, thus freed, would 
not walk after death.” He suggests the connection 
between the sin-eater and the Jewish scapegoat of 
the old Testament.* 

We shall consider in its proper order the 
relations between death and the funeral feast, but 
there is an aspect of the matter which is closely 
allied to the idea of the transfer of a personality 
for good or for evil, by means of the consumption 
of certain food, as in the case of sin-eaters, or by 
actually partaking of such parts of the human body 
as are associated with vitality. Traces of this 
revolting cult are still to be found, but its roots are 
deeply buried in antiquity. It is not exactly what 
we mean by cannibalism, in the sense in which we 
commonly use the word, to imply the eating of the 
human flesh as food. We shall remember having 
read in accounts of travel that these savage orgies 
were accompanied by demoniacal dances, which 
were supposed to be manifestations of joy or 
“war dances” in token of victory over a fallen 
enemy. 

These dances are probably a survival of 
religious rites, performed the world over, in honour 
of a human sacrifice offered to the great god Bel. 
“Cannibalism,” says Garnier, “appears to have 
been initiated by Cronus (i.e., Saturn or Cush), 
Cronus being the originator of human sacrifices” ; 
he quotes R. G. Hislop, who states that the word 
cannibal—our term for the eater of human flesh— 
is probably derived from Cahna Bal, 1.e., the 
Priest of Bel. The eating of human flesh is still 

1England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘* Burial Customs’’ (Curious 


Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm. 
Andrews. 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 71 


part of the religious rites of many of the Hamitic 
races of Africa.’ 

Totemism, animism and such cults are too 
large a subject to be dealt with in a few words. 
Briefly, they were related to early mysticism, and 
surrounded by all sorts of magical rites, which 
seem to have been recognized, and their practice 
strictly forbidden by Biblical injunction. Any- 
way, underlying all these practices, was the idea 
that by eating—let us say, the heart of a lion—the 
fierce courage of that beast would be absorbed into 
the nature of the participant. From this resulted 
the many tribal signs, each as are commonly known 
to us, as borne by the North American Indians, 
“Eagle Heart,’ “Running Bull” and the like. 
Irish and Welsh legends show that men were 
prohibited from eating the animal from which 
their tribe took its name, it was “taboo” and as 
such, was originally partaken of only ceremoniously, 
even the name of the animal being uttered, if at 
all, with special veneration. Further, it explains 
the worship of the golden calf—the swarming of 
mice, etc., mentioned in the Scriptures.’ 

The image of the tribal beast would be the 
mark of the tribe, and we shall find it painted on 
their tents, and borne into battle as an emblem. 

It found expression eventually in heraldry; it 
represented personal qualities or attributes, “ The 
iptmoreot.) Matk’ Dory helbaclerofistalukes: 
It was related to tattooing. 

It was the “taboo” of the Israelites which 
accounted the flesh of certain animals as unclean. 
We find traces of the cult in the funeral rites 


a ak i See ‘* Worship of the Dead.’’ 

2 See Stanley A. Cook, ‘‘ Israel and Totemism ’’; Robertson 
Smith, ‘‘ Kinship and Marriage edeeed SE Tokele pe vs) a Totemism, ”? British 
Association, 1902; Elton, “ Origins of English History.’ 


72 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


of the ancients, and for that matter even in our 
own. 
Mr. William Beaver, the resident Magistrate of 
the Western Division of New Guinea, recently 
reported a case of this form of sorcery which came 
within his jurisdiction. A number of sorcerers 
surrounded the hut of a native at night, whom they 
proceeded to bind by placing a spell on him. This 
was achieved by pointing a human bone towards 
him. The native by this means was rendered 
helpless, when he was murdered and his body 
buried. Later, it was removed from the grave and 
certain portions of the body were distributed and 
eaten ceremoniously. 

To cast a spell on an enemy by pointing a 
human bone at him is a well-known form of magic; 
it is practised by all tribes of the Itchumundi 
nation. For this purpose the fibula of a dead 
man’s leg is used. After being scraped and 
polished, it is painted with red ochre and attached 
to a cord made of human hair. A sorcerer so 
provided is greatly to be feared, and it is believed 
that anyone toward whom the bone is pointed will 
surely die.’ 

The following is another instance of the 
survival of the notion that the power of an 
individual may be transferred by the consumption 
of certain portions of his body. Sir H. Johnston 
thus described the death of a Subu chief: “ The 
wailing women dance in front of the hut where the 
body lies, striking each other with hatchets as they 
dance. Meanwhile, the wives of the chief squat 
round the corpse, keeping up a ceaseless lamenta- 
tion. After some days spent in this manner the 
stiffened limbs of the chief are forcibly bent, and 


1TIrne Toye-Warner, F.R.A.I., ‘* Black Magic’? (Occult 
Review, August, 1916). 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 73 


the body is then placed in a wicker coffin and 
mounted on the higher of two steps or stages 
prepared for its reception. The lower stage 
supports an earthenware vessel in which the fluids 
from the body are collected. In this manner it is 
left for several weeks; the horrid contents of the 
jar are eventually used by the witch doctor for 
magical rites.” 

Eating the flesh of a corpse to become 
associated with its virtues was a common Australian 
practice; in some cases the mourners were smeared 
with the fluids from the body, and when the remains 
were cremated the ashes were used in a like manner. 
If a further instance of the custom is necessary to 
show that it is by no means extinct, we may recall 
an incident which happened in China in the year 
1912. One of the leaders of the rebellion was 
executed in Nankin; after being shot, his body 
was opened and his heart extracted. It was 
cooked in accordance with the rites practised in the 
Ming Dynasty. This highly prized portion was 
afterwards cut up and distributed amongst the 
soldiers who had carried out the execution, in the 
belief that the courage and skill of the chief would 
be passed on to them by this means. 

That we have at least known of such things in 
the British Isles, if only in legend, is shown by a 
fantastic story told in Scotland of a certain Dr. John 
Fian, Geillie Duncan and others meeting the 
Devil at North Berwick Kirk—of black candles 
round the pulpit, from which his Satanic Majesty 
called the roll and preached a sermon, and of the 
“rifling of three graves for the purposes of magical 
cookery.” * 

It will be obvious to anyone who has examined 
a mummy in a museum that the body has been 


1 Wm. Andrews, ‘‘ Bygone Church Life in Scotland.’’ 


74 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


deprived by a process of embalming of those fluid 
elements which go so largely to make up the 
construction of our bodies. The fluids having 
been drawn off from the arteries and cavities, 
antiseptic liquids would be introduced to render 
the body immune from the ordinary courses of 
mortification and decay. These fluids taken from 
the body were used for certain ceremonial purposes. 
Of such unsavoury ingredients medicines were 
concocted in the middle ages, whose curative 
properties lay in their supposed magical power. 
To distinguish them from the more legitimate, if 
equally experimental nostrums which are prescribed 
for the cure of owr ills, the physician placed the 
sign of the cross on the prescription, as an earnest 
that the curative elements in his medicine did not 
depend on any supposed powers of sorcery. This 
sign, which has long since lost its meaning, is 
used on prescriptions to-day; curative charms of 
one sort or another are still to be found—* charm- 
ing” warts, for instance, is still held to be 
efficacious. 

Medical science once made use of certain 
powers attributed to the dead body—as_ the 
quotation of Kipling reminds us: 


‘“ Tf it be certain as Galen says, 
And sage Hippocrates holds as much 
That those afflicted by doubts and dismays 
Are mightily healed by a dead man’s touch.”’ 


It was generally believed that certain forms of 
disease, particularly ulcers and cancerous growths, 
might be effectively healed by being touched by a 
dead man’s hand, as “ King’s Evil” was held to 
be cured by the hand of the King. 


1 Rudyard Kipling, ‘‘ Our Fathers of Old.” 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 75 


This remarkable superstition is met with in 
many forms; in Scotland, for instance, it was 
thought to be necessary in order to avoid the 
possibility of being haunted, that those who took 
part in the funeral rites, must not only see the 
body before it was shrouded or borne to the grave, 
but also ¢ouch it. It was further held that the 
corpse of a murdered man would not decay till it 
had been ceremoniously “ touched.” 

Looking through the records for a trace of 
such customs in our own country, we find a very 
significant old Cornish belief that children should 
be made to kiss the dead, in order that by so 
doing they might receive from them the gifts 
of long lfe and physical strength. Even now 
amongst the lower orders of society we find that 
kissing the dead is looked upon as a pious 
necessity, an unwholesome habit which might well 
have a deeper meaning than the mere promptings 
of affection. 

Whilst with all our pagan survivals, we can 
hardly be accused of such revolting practices as 
have been described, we can certainly find a trace 
of totemism in the hatchment. If we seldom see 
it in use, it is no fault of the “ Dismal Trader,” for 
whatever there may be lacking in his shop window 
as a sign of his calling, there you are certain to 
find the emblazoned hatchment, by which means he 
seeks to impress the public with a sense of the 
rank and social importance of his clientele—full 
well he knows the world to be a snob, and no one 
trades upon the fact more effectively. Even the 
poor seamstress disguised under a French name 
and claiming to be a “Court” dressmaker, 1is 
a poor second. 

Properly the hatchment—of which the word 


1M. A. Courtney, ‘‘ Cornish Folklore.’’ 


76 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


achievement is but a corruption—is the arms or 
escutcheon of a person granted to him in recognition 
of some personal prowess. In Herald’s College it 
will still be referred to as “achievement.” In the 
form in which we find it exhibited in the under- 
taker’s window, it is framed and ready to be hung 
at the death of a distinguished patron on the front 
of his mansion, to notify the fact of his decease; 
from the house it would afterwards be removed to 
the church where the body has been interred. 

The arms are emblazoned on a diamond-shaped 
“field.” To denote the death of the master of the 
house, the right half of the device would be sable 
or on a black ground, but in the event of the death 
of his lady, the left half will be “ argent” or silver, 
the “field” being reversed. For a_ widow, 
widower or unmarried person the whole of the 
“ field ” will be sable.’ 

The custom of the use of the “achievement ” 
is readily traceable to the totem stage of society. 

Whilst looking at the hatchment displayed in 
the undertaker’s window, we shall probably have 
noticed amongst the trappings of his trade, a 
number of tall brass candlesticks reposing 
prominently in a glass case, and they serve to 
remind us of the very important part which candles 
have played in all ages in the observance of funeral 
rites. The word funeral, properly speaking, 
denotes a torchlight procession, for it is derived from 
the Latin “ funeralis ” from funis, a torch. It was at 
one time the general practice to bury at night by 
torchlight, and long after this was discontinued, 
torches or candles were carried in the funeral 
procession and were placed about the body, from 
the moment of death till the time of burial. 

The reason for this is worth some consideration. 


1 Wilfred Mark Webb, ‘‘ The Heritage of Dress.’’ 


¢ 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 77 


The Christian, whilst condemning the habit of 
burial at night as a pagan practice, and if only for 
that reason to be avoided, sees in the flickering 
flame a symbol of the “light of faith,” but this 
hardly goes to the root of the matter. An old 
chronicler, in claiming the lighted candle as an 
memblem) of )--Joy; ikleaven and) Lite») isays; 
“Secondly, we make use of lights to put all the 
powers of darkness to flight,”* but we shall be 
nearer the truth with all respect to his pious 
aspirations, if we reverse the order of his thoughts, 
for it is clear that the purpose of surrounding the 
body of the dead with lighted tapers was primarily 
to scare the evil spirits from an attack on the now 
helpless “ sleeper.” 

We are told that in parts of Ireland twelve reed 
canes were used in olden times in place of candles 
to scare the devils from the departing soul, for it 
was supposed that a “ circle of five was an effective 
protection from the powers of darkness.” ? 

Darkness has always been held to favour the 
conditions in which ghosts of the departed may 
materialize. The subtle psycho-plastic matter of 
which the apparition is compounded—a dough-like 
substance, which the modern investigator claims 
not only to have handled, but to have actually 
weighed and examined under the microscope, will 
not readily withstand the action of light. J. Hewat 
McKenzie tells us that “the necessity for darkness 
during materialization is in harmony with the 
creation of all animal and vegetable structures, as 
the former are built in the darkness of the womb 
of the animal body and the latter within the 
darkness of the soil.” ° 


1 Pierre Muret, Trans. P. Lorraine, ‘‘ Funeral Rites, Ancient 
and Modern.?’’ 

2 Tadv Wilde, ‘‘ Ancient Legends of Ireland.”’ 

> J. Hewat McKenzie, ‘‘ Spirit Intercourse.’’ 


78 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


That our forefathers held the funeral light as 
a very important matter we shall see from many 
old customs. 

Symbolically, the lighted torch has ever been 
an emblem of life—and extinguished—as of death. 
Poets have compared its flame, blown hither and 
thither by the adverse winds of fate, to the 
uncertainty of human life. 

The American Indian, mourning for one of his 
tribe, will kindle a torch from “holy fire” and 
brandishing it three times round his head, extinguish 
its flame in water, in-token of death, a custom 
which reminds us of the Roman usage of extinguish- 
ing the lighted flambeaux carried in the funeral 
procession of the mourners in the earth which would 
presently cover the remains. 

One of the principal tributes which it was 
customary to pay to rank and position was a great 
burning of candles, and the more wax consumed 
the greater the honour it was considered had been 
paid to the dead. 

The amount of wax required for the use of the 
Church was very considerable, as its consumption 
was not necessary for ceremonial purposes only, 
but also for lighting the edifice. This was met 
by a charge, and like many other contributions in 
the past, it was paid in kind. Twice a year 
“waxcot” was collected; the word is derived from 
the Saxon “sceat” which means a contribution, 
thus waxceat, corrupted in course of time to “ wax- 
cot,” was a contribution in kind to the Church for 
the altar and other lights. We meet the word 
again in the expression “scot” (or sceat) free— 
signifying tax or contribution free. In addition to 
this imposition it was also customary for a person 
to leave a sum of money by will to provide candles 
for use at their funeral, and to be placed round — 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 79 


the tomb on the anniversary of the death. Not 
infrequently a hive of bees would be offered for 
the same purpose, or for some other specified use. 
Dr. Gasquet quotes the following example: “ At 
Bromley, Margaret White, widow, who died in 
1538, by her will gave one hive of bees to support 
the light of All Hallows, and one hive to support 
the light of the sepulchre, and a third to the light 
of St. Anthony.” ? 

The composition of the materials for church 
candles is stipulated and rigidly adhered to. 
Bees-wax is specially used in the manufacture of 
the dark yellow candles connected with the services 
of the dead, and during one of the ceremonies which 
the Catholic Church performs during Holy Week, 
a special prayer is said for the bees, whose industry 
provides the lights for the ensuing year. 

Whilst on the subject, we may call to the mind 
the curious custom of “telling” the bees of a 
death in the family. If this precaution should be 
neglected it has been thought that they would at 
once abandon their hives—never to return. The 
proper method of procedure 1s to knock at the hive 
with the door key of the house, an instrument we 
shall find used by the “bidder” in giving 
invitations to a funeral. The hive is then tied 
round with a band of crape, whilst the little 
inmates are solemnly informed of the catastrophe.’ 
Good tidings were also told to the bees, as Kipling 
reminds us:° 


“ Marriage, birth or buryin’, 
News across the seas, 
All your sad or merryin’, 
You must tell the bees.”’ 


1 Dr. Gasquet, ‘‘ Parish Life in Medizval England.’’ 
*Canon Atkinson, ‘‘ Forty Years in a Moorland Parish.”’ 
5 Rudyard Kipling, ‘‘ The Bee-boy’s Song.’’ 


80 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


In addition to “waxcot” various other con- 
tributions were exacted in pre-Reformation days of 
the nature of the tithe which is still levied. 
Harassed during life by taxes and assessments of 
various kinds, even death did not bring a relief 
from their responsibilities. _ When our forefathers 
stepped for a moment from the dull course of their 
daily routine in satisfaction of some human necessity, 
they called attention in so doing to their otherwise 
neglected existence, and at once someone would 
demand a tax. At marriage the “ merchet” was 
paid to the lord of the manor, who would be down 
again on his unfortunate tenant for the collection 
of “heriot” at his death, when to the Church 
“mortuary ” would also be due. 

Heriot was originally a due under the feudal 
system, and consisted of the return to the feudal 
lord of the horse and military equipment with 
which the vassal had been provided, in order that 
he might serve his master in battle or private feud. 
It was one of the many “good old customs” 
sanctified by age, and retained for the sake of 
revenue, long after any excuse for its existence 
could be claimed; when war horses and armour no 
longer provided were obviously not there to be 
seized, a farm horse or a cow would be demanded 
from the relatives, who were reckless enough to 
enjoy the luxury of having the head of the house 
taken from them by death. 

In the fourteenth century the lord of the manor 
claimed the best possession of a deceased tenant, 
whatever it might be, and so long as he left not 
less than three head of live stock the Church was 
allowed to take what was judged to be his second 
best possession.’ 

Capes gives an instance from Sudshot, showing 


1G. C. Coulton, ‘‘ Chaucer and His Times.”’ 


WAKES, MUTES, ETC. 81 


that in the early fourteenth century the heriot 
had sunk to a hen and two pence, because the 
deceased had no animals at all.’ 

Mortuary was paid to the Church at death, and 
it was supposed amongst other things to make 
reparation for anything due to the Church, which 
had either been overlooked or wilfully neglected. 
The matter was, however, regulated by an Act in 
1529, which forbade the toll on the goods of a 
deceased person when their total value did not 
exceed ten marks. A sliding scale of charges 
upon the property of the dead was fixed for goods 
of a value over that amount. In its last stages the 
mortuary became associated with a charge made 
for a funeral sermon, and this imposition ceased 
altogether at the end of the eighteenth century. 


1 Capés’ *‘ Rural Life in Hampshire.’’ 


GHAPTE ROY 


BELLS, MOURNING 


THE “ passing bell” is the herald of death, but the 
custom of ringing it has largely been abandoned 
in this country. Its object was to call attention 
to the fact that a soul was “passing” into the 
next world, and asked your prayers. More than 
this, it was believed that the ringing of the bell 
frightened the ever-present evil spirits, who would 
be making a special effort at the moment of death 
to obtain possession of the soul. It was at one 
time a common practice to ring the church bells 
during a thunderstorm, for Wagner (quoting 
Jurandus) says, “It is said that the wicked spirits 
that be in the region of the air fear much when they 
hear the bells, and this is why the bells be aringing 
when it thundereth, to the end that the foul fiend 
and wicked spirits should be abashed and flee, and 
cease from moving of the tempest.” * 

A special bell was reserved for this purpose, 
known in Scotland as a “ mort-bell,” and another 
called the “ soul-bell” tolled after death had taken 
place. It was possible to tell by the sound of the 
“soul-bell” if it was rung for an adult, or for a 
child, for in the former case the tenor was sounded 
and in the latter, the treble. It was, moreover, 
customary to distinguish the sex, by tolling three 


1 Leopold Wagner, ‘‘ Manners, Customs and Observances.”’ 
82 


BELLS, MOURNING 83 


times for a man and twice for a woman, followed, 
after a pause, by a stroke for each year corres- 
ponding to the age of the deceased. Nowadays a 
bell is sometimes tolled twenty-four hours after a 
death, but is seldom heard till the procession is in 
sight of the church, when its solemn note at minute 
intervals denotes the arrival of the body for burial. 

Amongst other old customs, the practice is 
recorded of ringing three times before the grave- 
digger disturbed the burial ground for a new grave,’ 
whilst Howlett speaks of “ ringing home the dead,” 
for he tells us that in Shropshire the bells chimed | 
till the procession reached the church, when the 
minute bell was tolled, and at Hatherleigh in 
Devonshire a lively peal was rung after the funeral, 
as elsewhere is usual for a wedding.* In this, we 
are reminded of the cheerful strains of the military 
band which plays the soldiers home from the 
funeral of a comrade. 

The will of a lady who recently died in London 
contained the following provision. After stating 
that her body was to be buried at Burford, Salop, 
it read: “I direct that when my coffin enters the 
churchyard there, the church bells shall ring in a 
joyful peal, according to an old Salop custom.” ° 

The earlier practice is a relic of the days of 
communal life in village or hamlet, where the joys 
and sorrows of the individual were commonly 
shared—where the parish church was, moreover, 
the common centre of all activities, a place of 
record, law and order, as well as of worship, to 
which, in time of stress or rejoicing, all thoughts 
were turned. 


1M. A. Courtney, ‘‘ Cornish Folklore.”’ 

2England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘* Burial Customs’’ (Curious 
Church Customs and Cognate subjects). Edited by W. N. 
Andrews. 

5 The Star Newspaper, July 7th, 1917. 


84 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Modern life, tending to separateness, has done 
much to destroy this feeling of kinship, and 
many old customs have been lost in consequence. 
To-day, it is true that the passing bell might toll 
unheeded—if it could be heard at all, above the 
hooting of motors or the grinding of machinery— 
and few would stay a moment at work or pleasure 
to “ wing” a kindly thought to a soul passing to 
Eternity. 

Gasquet, writing of the times of the old Trade 
Guilds, speaks of their employing a bellman to 
announce not only the death and burial of a 
departed craftsman, but his anniversary. He 
quotes the following, “The Sacrist was reminded 
to send the bellman round about the city, to 
proclaim the ‘ obit-day’ of one Richard Chapman, 
and every year his will. At each street he was 
instructed to ring his bell and say, ‘ For the sowles 
of Richard Chapman and Alys his wyf, brother, 
syster of Corpus Christi Gylde to-morne (i.e., 
to-morrow) shall be theyre yereday” for which 
service he was to receive one penny. His object 
was to call the various members of the fraternities 
and societies to attend funeral and anniversary 
masses, and pray for the soul of the brethren. 
The hand-bell used was called the Rogation bell, 
from its use in calling people to church. It was 
rung in funeral processions, from the house of 
mourning to the church. The ancient Romans also 
made use of a bellman to announce death.* 

In some country villages in England and 
Scotland an official known as the Bidder may still 
be met with, whose duty it is to “ bid ” to the local 
funerals by knocking at the house doors with a 
key; in the towns he would ring his bell. 

Murray, quoting a statistical account of Scotland 


1 Dr. Gasquet, ‘‘ Parish Life in Medieval England.”’ 


BELLS, MOURNING 85 


compiled at the end of the eighteenth century, thus 
gives the form of his announcement, “ You are 
desired to come to such a one’s burial to-morrow 
against ten hours.” No person was invited by 
letter in those days, and although the mourners 
assembled “against ten of the clock” the corpse 
was never interred till the evening, so little did they 
value time. The prescribed form of announcement 
by the parish beadle, perambulating the streets with 
his bell, was as follows: “ All brethren and sisters, 
I let ye to wit there is a brother departed at the 
pleasure of the Almighty—here he would lift his 
hat—called All those that come to the burial 
come at o'clock. The corpse is at #3 

In the funeral procession the beadle walked 
before the corpse, ringing his bell. 

Almost all the quaint customs, traces of which 
we shall discover in many countries, will be found 
in Brittany generally garnished with picturesque 
additions of its own. 

De Braz gives the following account of the 
method adopted by the good people of Pol-de-Leon 
in “ bidding” to a burial. ‘“ Should the deceased 
be a man, then four old men, or if a woman, four 
old women from an almshouse make a circuit of 
the town, in either case preceded by two bare- 
footed orphans, ringing a bell. Here and there at 
a point of vantage—the bell having ceased—the 
children in doleful voices recited these words, “ We 
recommend to your pious prayers who has 
died to-day and whom we shall bury to-morrow. 
Take notice therefore, such of you as are faithful, 
to pray for his soul.” This oration was concluded 
by the usual ejaculation, “May he rest in 
peace. 

We can hardly imagine in these strenuous days, 


1 De Braz, ‘‘ La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons.’’ 














86 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


how it was possible, not only for relatives and 
personal friends, but for the neighbours generally, 
to leave their work, sometimes for days at a time, 
to take part in these funeral celebrations. At the 
summons of the “ bidder ” they flocked to the house 
of mourning, in many cases bearing with them 
certain specified contributions to the funeral 
feast. 

To-day, when we telegraph our condolences 
and telephone to the florist for a “ wreath,” we are 
clinging tenaciously to the principle if not observing 
the actual customs of other times, but in nothing 
are we more conservative than in our ludicrous 
persistence in wearing mourning “ weeds.” 

In the same way that we have found the word 
“corpse” to have originally signified the body of 
the living, now used to denote the dead; so the 
word “weeds” at one time accepted as applying 
to garments generally, is now used to describe the 
ceremonial dress of mourners, in particular that 
worn by the widow. 


‘“ A hapless pilgrim moaning his abide, 
Poor in his view, ungentle in his weed,”’ 

is an illustration of this.’ 

Mourning clothes were also known as “ doole,” 
a word equivalent to “ dole” expressing a “ portion ” 
or “pittance.” Derived from the Latin “doleo ” 
to grieve, it therefore carries a double meaning 
which very well expresses the sense in which the 
word “ doole” was accepted as “something given 
away in relation to grief,” for we find that it was > 
the custom for the relatives of the deceased to 
present mourning garments to their relations, to 
the clergyman who conducted the burial service, 
also to intimate friends, and, by way of charity to 


1 Thomas Chatterton, ‘‘ An Excelente Balade of Charitie.”’ 


BELLS, MOURNING 87 


certain poor retainers and others who attended the 
funeral. The following verse of Ben Jonson’s, 
quoted by Ditchfield, in an admirable book which 
throws rather a fierce light on “ The Old-time 
Parson,” * shows that “ doole”’ was one of the many 
pickings which fell to the parson’s lot, and gives 
more than a hint at some others. 


ce 


. . . draws all the parish wills, 

Designs the legacies and strokes the gills 
Of the chief mourner; and whoever lacks 
Of all the kindred, he has first his blacks.” ° 


A few years ago, the writer was shown a 
drawerful of wide black scarves, presented to the 
Vicar of a Yorkshire country parish on _ the 
occasion of many funerals at which he had 
ofhciated. This is a survival of the custom of 
giving “ doole.” 

The expense of providing mourning must have 
been very considerable, but a foolish display of 
wealth to uphold the family honour is a very 
old human failing, particularly at the time of death. 
What is merely a vulgarity in the rich is apt to 
have serious consequences when indulged in by 
the needy, whose natural love of ostentation and 
display is carefully nurtured by the “ Dismal 
cage... 

The mourning garment was originally a sort of 
loose black cloak, very much the same as that 
worn by nuns. It was designed to entirely cover 
the ordinary attire, and would be made up in a few 
general sizes, as it would have been obviously 
impossible to produce garments to f/ a variety of 
persons at short notice. 

Evelyn wrote in 1695: “I saw the Queen 


1 P. H. Ditchfield, ‘‘ The Old-time Parson.”’ 
2 Ben Jonson, ‘‘ The Magnetic Lady.”’ 


88 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


(Mary) lie in state,” and continued, “ Never was 
so universal a mourning. All the Parliament-men 
had cloaks given them, and four hundred poor 
women,” etc.* 

We learn that over nine hundred black gowns 
were distributed at the funeral of the Earl of 
Oxford, who had been heavily fined by Henry VII 
for an excessive display of power and wealth, as 
exhibited by the rank and number of his retainers. 

Froude, writing of Edward VI’s reign, gives 
some interesting particulars of an attempt to 
restrict extravagance in the matter of “doole” at 
the funeral of Lady Seymour. For reasons of 
State, a great public funeral was thought to be 
inadvisable. The matter being put before the 
Lords the following pious conclusions were arrived 
at. “The Lords weighed with themselves that 
the wearing of ‘doole’ and such outward demon- 
stration of mourning not only did not profit the 
dead, but served to induce the living to have a 
diffidence of the better life to come, to the departed 
in God, by changing of this transitory life, yea, 
and divers other ways did move and cause scruple 
of coldness in faith unto the weak.” They further 
reflected, “besides, that many of the wiser sort, 
weighing the impertinent charges bestowed upon 
black cloth and other instruments of those funeral 
pomps, might worthily find fault with the expense 
thereupon bestowed. Considering, therefore, how 
at present the observation of the time of outward 
mourning and wearing of the ‘doole’ was far 
shortened and omitted, even amongst mean persons, 
from that it was wonted to be; considering further 
how private men should reserve their private 
sorrows to their own houses, and not diminish the 
presence of their Prince with doleful tokens—the 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 


BELLS, MOURNING 89 


Council dispenses the Duke (of Somerset) for 
wearing of ‘doole’ either upon himself or upon 
any of his family, or the continuing of other personal 
observances, such as heretofore were had in solemn 
use€, as serving rather to pomp than to any edifying.” 

Froude justly remarks, “that if these injunc- 
tions were sincere, they were hastily adopted, and 
as soon forgotten, for in the following March, 
Wentworth, the Lord Chamberlain, was interred 
in Westminster Abbey where there was great 
“doole’ and a great company.” * 

Mourning in the days of the Stuarts was a 
serious business and lasted for a very long time. 
Lady Fanshawe, in her will, requested that her 
son and daughter should wear it for three years 
after her decease, an injunction from which they 
could only hope to escape by marriage. 

Even in this period of rigorous etiquette, there 
were those of better disposition, for we learn that 
Lady Sussex, despite the fact that she had spent 
four hundred pounds (worth very considerably 
more in those days) on her husband’s funeral to 
express her “love and valy of him,” declined to 
accept “doole” from her relatives at the decease 
of a member of the family, as she was living in 
retirement and saw no one.’ 

In view of the sacred association of man and 
wife as expressed by the bond of marriage, con- 
sidered as it was as indissoluble and sacramental, 
we shall expect to find the mourning of a widow 
for her husband as bound by special conventions, 
and this especially so in days when the thought of 
a second marriage for the woman would be looked 
upon with great disfavour and suspicion. It was 
for this reason that we find it a common practice 
for the widow to retire to a convent or to become 


1 James Anthony Froude, ‘‘ The Reign of Edward VI.” 
2 Elizabeth Godfrey, ‘‘ Home Life Under the Stuarts.’’ 


90 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


what was known as a “vowess” living in strict 
seclusion, and devoting the remainder of her days 
to prayer and good works, both of which in her 
happier state may have been neglected—and 
enshrining in her heart the memory of such admir- 
able qualities as her husband may have possessed. 
Putting all finery aside, the widow adopted the 
sombre habit and veil of anun. It was the custom 
for a dowager of position to retire to the dower- 
house. “ Dower,” it should be explained, is that 
portion of a husband’s estate which falls to his 
widow (the dowager) at-his death, passing at her 
death to his heirs. Hence the wealthy widow 
became a dowager or person so endowed, and it 
was a common practice for a family of position to 
provide a special house on the estate for her 
residence, leaving the ancestral home to the heir, 
as'a\ cradle for, the next) cénerations a eltines 
unquestioning acceptance of self-effacement as a 
natural consequence of her widowhood, we see the 
shadow at least of the horrible practices of earlier 
times, which might well have condemned her to be 
actually sacrificed, and her body buried with that 
of her lord and master, for his comfort in a future 
state, a sentence commuted in more enlightened 
times to a form of lifelong imprisonment. 

To the old-time widow, except perhaps in the 
case of a very young woman, the thought of a 
second marriage would be repugnant. ‘To-day it 
is not uncommon to meet with people who have 
“a feeling ” that second marriages are in the nature 
of ungodliness. 

In the sixteenth century, regulations were 
made, restricting the use of mourning as to 
quantity and dictating also the quality of the 
materials, and the exact manner in which the 
garments were to be fashioned. 


BELLS, MOURNING 91 


The chief point of interest in the mourning 
habits of woman in the Middle Ages was the wear- 
ing of the barbe, a long pleated arrangement, often 
represented on memorial brasses. For those above 
the rank of Baroness the barbe was worn above 
the chin, and in the lower estates it was fastened 
below the throat. It consisted of a piece of fine 
linen." The term is derived from the Latin 
“barba” or beard. It is to the convent also that 
we must look for the origin of the widow’s cap, 
and particularly for the veil or “streamers,” the 
survival of the veil once covering the face, but 
now thrown back and diminished in size. The 
grotesque widow’s bonnet is still sometimes seen 
with a shortened veil covering the face, the lower 
part of which it conceals, beneath the deep hem 
of double crape. 

In the windows of certain small shops in the 
Jewish quarter of any city may be found curious 
brown matted wigs which are sold to the orthodox 
Jewish matron, who still cuts off her hair when 
she marries, in order to render herself no longer 
attractive to men in general. 

In Egypt, Greece and Rome, both men and 
women cut off their hair as a sign of mourning, in 
which circumstances the men wore wigs and the 
women caps. So, too, in “taking the veil,” the 
nun sacrifices her tresses—the symbol of her 
personal vanities—a custom followed by the widow, 
but at a later period she adopted the widow’s cap, 
closely covering her head to disguise the fact that 
whilst she admitted the principle, she was no longer 
prepared to part with her hair. ‘The wearing of 
white cuffs probably also came from the convent. 
Webb says, in referring to the matter, “ The 
white cuffs of the widow recall those of the nurse, 


1 Ashdown, ‘‘ British Costumes of the Fourteenth Century.’’ 


92 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


and similar ones are used by some members of the 
legal profession as part of their mourning.” ? 

A black crape “ weeper” was worn at one time 
by men, as a token of mourning, bound round their 
hats and hanging down their backs. At the funeral 
of a child or a young girl, white took the place of 
black as an emblem of purity. The “ Trade” still 
carries on the tradition when “extras” are 
provided. 

_ The origin of the custom has a significance of 
its Own. 

Wagner attributes it to a survival of the 
“Liripipe,” a long-tailed tippet depending from 
the hood worn by men in this country during the 
Plantagenet period. In the reign of Henry VIII 
the hood was exchanged for the hat, but the 
tippet was retained in the form of the hat-band.’ 

Of late years the mourning “ weeper ” was shorn 
of its tails and width which a few years ago reached 
within an inch of the top of the silk hat, became 
gradually reduced, til! it ceased to have any special 
significance. 

The following custom was very general in 
Switzerland thirty years ago. ‘The men mourners 
in the funeral procession carried their hats under 
the left arm. Round the hat a “weeper” was 
tied, two yards in length. Over the brim a deeply 
bordered handkerchief was spread in the centre of 
which reposed a lemon, which was eventually 
placed ceremoniously in the grave, presumably as 
a token of the sharpness of grief. 

A curious old French custom insisted that men 
should wear long black coats and a special form 
of headgear to which a kind of coif was attached 
which partly hid the face; whilst their women-folk 


1 Wilfred Mark Webb, ‘‘ The Heritage of Dress.’’ 
2 Leopold Wagner, ‘‘ Manners, Customs and Observances.’’ 


BELLS, MOURNING 98 


used a covering for the head and neck, made in 
two pieces of material, the widow of the lower 
classes retaining it till her death unless she 
married again. 

In common with so many of our funeral 
customs, the use of black for mourning garments 
is connected with the deep-rooted dread of the 
return of the dead. It was believed that when 
cloaked or veiled in sable hue human beings were 
invisible to the spirits and thus free from any 
possibility of molestation. 

Whilst black has been generally used for 
the purposes of mourning, it is not universal. 
Symbolical of night, the absence of colour seemed 
best fitted to express a soul abandoned to grief, 
the most respectful, and therefore the safest attitude 
for the living to adopt towards their dead, whom 
they wished above all things to propitiate. 

In the year 1498 Anne, Queen of Charles VIII 
of France, dressed herself and surrounded her coat 
of arms with black on the death of her husband. 
This was considered an innovation, as white had 
previously been used by the French Queens. It 
could hardly have shocked the rigid etiquette of 
the Court as much as the action of Louis XI, 
who, a few years previously, forsook the customary 
purple of mourning for a hunting suit, half red 
and half white for the sake of simplicity. 

So absurd were the restrictions before the 
fifteenth century that a widowed queen was not 
allowed to leave her apartments, which were heavily 
draped in black, till a year or more after the death 
of her royal spouse. 

The order of mourning was revised by Mary, 
Queen of Scots, who was known as the White 
Queen, because she mourned in white the death of 
her husband, Lord Darnley. White weeds were 


94 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


also used by the ladies of ancient Rome in China 
and Japan. 

In the Stuart period, beds draped entirely in 
black, with bedclothes to match, were considered 
as a proper accompaniment of mourning. This 
gruesome paraphernalia was lent to relatives and 
friends when they had need of it. At the death 
of Lord Sussex, Sir Ralph Verney sent a black bed 
and hangings to the widow, but later, she announced 
her betrothal to her third husband, the Earl of 
Warwick, and in so doing, asked what she should 
do with the now inappropriate piece of furniture, 
which she seemed anxious to be rid of, in view of 
her altered circumstances. When Sir Ralph was 
left a widower the family bed was unobtainable, 
for he was travelling about at the time; he, there- 
fore, had to content himself with such solace as he 
might obtain from a black nightcap, a black brush 
and comb, black velvet slippers, etc.’ 

Amongst the colours used to express grief, 
perhaps yellow, a symbol of decay, is the most 
common. It was used by the Egyptians amongst 
others. With it, the native of Central Africa 
paints his body as a sign of mourning, as the 
Australian paints himself white and the American 
Indian with black. In Brittany the widow’s cap 
was of yellow or a light brown—the hue of withered 
leaves—which is also the prevailing colour in 
Persia. 

Blue or violet is the “doole” of the Turk, the 
former being used in France and Belgium in con- 
nection with the death of a child, as representing 
not only the celestial blue of the heavens, but also 
the traditional colour worn by the “ Mother of the 
Saviour” at Golgotha. Violet or purple, with 
which the Roman soldiers clothed the Saviour as 


1 Elizabeth Godfrey, ‘‘Home Life Under the Stuarts.’’ 


BELLS, MOURNING 95 


“ King of the Jews,” is the colour adopted by the 
Christian Church as a sign of penance and mourn- 
ing, and with which the pictures and ornaments of 
the Catholic Church are veiled from Passion Sunday 
till Easter. Black vestments are, however, used 
in masses for the dead, and on Good Friday. 

In the more remote English country villages, 
we may often see special mourning and wedding 
garments—a weird assortment of past fashions, 
which are only brought to light on the occasions 
of family ceremony from the press where they lay 
embalmed for generations in camphor or lavender. 

The sight is surely not relatively more ridiculous 
than the orthodox frock-coat or “ cut-away ” worn 
in conjunction with a pair of evening dress trousers. 

Knowing the value set on ostentatious displays 
of grief, we are not surprised to find the black 
bordered handkerchief still in use, particularly 
during the funeral procession, and at the grave, 
where it is calculated to produce an effect which 
is an apology for the absence of the historical 
“wailing women.” 

It is in the highest, and again in the lowest 
grades of the social scale (always the last to be 
touched by the tide of progress) that mourning is 
insisted on with a rigour which 1s simply fanatical. 

In the case of the poor one is left wondering 
where the money comes from to pay for the luxury 
of grief. 

When the cold hand of death is laid on the 
small wage-earner whose family has subsisted from 
week to week on his slender takings, often enough 
the last shilling in the house has been gone to 
provide some urgent necessity during his illness. 

Hardly is the toil-worn body cold when the 
whole family, as if by some miracle, appear in new 
black dresses, and the widow is swathed in the 


96 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


customary crape. How is it done, we ask in 
astonishment, in view of the fact, that to refit any 
one member of the family in ordinary circum- 
stances at a short notice would be considered as 
a financial problem quite outside the scope of their 
resources. Well, it zs done, somehow. You may 
see the “impossible” performed a hundred times 
a year in any poor neighbourhood. Of course there 
are burial clubs (as there were in Ancient Rome), 
and there are pawnshops, ready-made clothes 
and cheap materials, but insurance is too often an 
impulse in times of comparative prosperity and 
subscriptions are allowed to lapse during the first 
period of adversity. [he pawnshop has already 
absorbed anything pawnable, else how could the 
family have lived through the expensive days when 
the wage-earner was “ off sick.” 

Knowing the proverbial generosity of the needy, 
it may be supposed that some kindly neighbour 
has come to the rescue, but this source of supply 
will be resorted to only as a last desperate 
expedient, for according to the fierce code of honour 
prevailing in the district, this is a time for display, 
not for borrowing, and who knows better than the 
widow that a score of coldly criticizing eyes are 
watching events through broken Venetian blinds 
and dirty Nottingham lace curtains, which screen 
something yet more sordid, in order to see how the 
Joneses or the Williamses come through the ordeal. 
What will the Church do for Widow Jones—the 
Church that married her—and has not seen her 
since? 

If we add to such a situation real grief, real 
despair and much untutored sentimentality, we 
have a pretty problem, and one that has to be 
faced quickly, for you can’t keep a corpse waiting 
too long. Well, it rests between the moneylenders 


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BELLS, MOURNING 97 


at a penny a week interest on the shilling, and such 
terms as may be made with various branches of the 
“ Dismal Trade.” 

Go down into the slums and see how generously 
this folly is catered for—a question of business, 
perhaps—of supply and demand. 

If there be any consolation to be gained in this 
sorry matter, it is in the contemplation of certain 
promises made to those who “do business” with 
widows—and to those who “ grind the face of the 
poor.” 

Many instances might be given to show how 
hard it is for an enlightened individual to stand up 
against the weight of conventional ignorance at a 
time when affliction has rendered resistance most 
difficult. The following are two instances from 
personal experience. 

A superior servant, a mere girl, married a 
house painter. Within a year of the event, the 
husband fell from a ladder and was killed. 

The poor little widow bought a cheap black 
dress and a very simple black straw hat to wear 
at the funeral. Her former employer, who had 
much commended this modest outlay, met the girl 
a few days later swathed in crape, her poor little 
face only half visible under a hideous widow’s 
bonnet complete with streamers and a veil. Asked 
why she had made these purchases she explained 
that her neighbours and relations had made her 
life unbearable because she did not want to wear 
widow’s weeds, and at last she had to give in. 
“They said that if I would not wear a bonnet, 
it proved we were never married,” she sobbed. 

In other stations of life many a brave attempt 
to break down these horrid conventions has been 
over-ridden by some ghoulish relations on a plea 
of want of respect to the dead. 

G 


98 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


The scene of the following incident was a house 
in one of the “best parts ” of a well-known London 
suburb. 

A death had taken place in the family, and it 
had fallen to the lot of the eldest daughter to make 
the arrangements for the funeral. 

She asked for a plain elm coffin without any 
ornaments. 

“Elm,” said the horrified undertaker, ‘but 
you can’t have anything but polished oak iz a road 
like this.” 


CHARPER “VI 
FUNERAL FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS 


WE have seen that certain parts of the body have 
been eaten in the belief that by this means such 
special virtues as the dead may possess would be 
transferred to those who thus participated; and we 
must bear this ceremonious cannibalism in mind in 
considering the funeral feast proper, for there was 
originally a connection. We must also remember 
the important fact that food has been offered from 
the earliest times at the grave, for the sustenance of 
the dead in their spiritual state. Superficially it 
would strike us as incomprehensible that even the 
most untutored mind could have supposed that 
the food so thoughtfully provided was actually 
consumed by the departed shade, in view of the 
fact that it still remained to moulder on the 
grave. This is a misconception of a point of view. 

Wallis Budge mentions that in many places in 
the Sudan to-day, meat and drink are still brought 
to, and laid on the graves, that the dead may 
partake of them at their pleasure, but he reminds 
us that the ceremonies performed by their priests 
are believed to change the material substance of 
the offerings into a spiritual form, and of ¢his the 
dead partake, leaving the material elements to be 
consumed by the priest and the relations, by which 


means they are brought into communication with 
their dead.’ 


1E, A. Wallis Budge, M.A., ‘‘ Liturgy of Funeral Offerings.”’ 
99 


100 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


It is probable that the earlier funeral feasts 
were nothing more than a distribution of the food 
offered to the dead, after they had obtained—as it 
was supposed—supernatural nourishment from it. 

Some echo of this may be traced in the 
Bulgarian custom of feasting in the cemeteries on 
Palm Sunday, when the remains of the good things 
provided are left on the graves for the dead. 

The most ancient Egyptian ceremonies were 
connected with offerings to the dead; wine, sweet 
beer, cakes of various kinds, fruit, scented oils, the 
heads of bulls and a variety of ceremonial garments 
were used for the purpose: so too by the Romans, 
whilst to-day the Chinese and the older civiliza- 
tions hold fast in one form or another to the belief 
that the spirit needs some form of nourishment. 

Once again in this practice we shall find the 
old terror of being haunted by the ghost asserting 
itself. The Bodo of India carry the dead man’s 
share of food and drink to the grave, saying, 
“Take and eat, heretofore you have eaten and 
drunk with us, you can do so no more; you were 
one of us, you can be so no longer; we come no 
more to you—come you not to us.’ After this 
recital, in order to make the changed position still 
more definite, each mourner throws on the grave a 
thread bracelet, which he breaks off his wrist, 
saying, “ Take that, the tie between the dead and 
the living is snapped.” A similar ceremony is 
performed at the funeral feast in the Solomon 
Islands, where a portion of food is thrown into the 
fire, and the dead are thus invoked, “ This is for 
you,” and even at the daily meal a certain portion 
is set apart for their use.* 

Pagan usage, sanctified by Christian interpreta- 
tion, has frequently been carried forward to our 


1 Edward Clodd, ‘‘ The Story of Primitive Man.”’ 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS 101 


times, and it is interesting to note that when 
the Trappist monk is taken by death from the 
Community, his meals are still served for him in 
the refectory for thirty days after his decease; 
being given afterwards to the poor. 

To the superstitious mind, a food offering 
should properly be served at the burial-place, 
otherwise a danger would be incurred by inducing 
the soul to wander back to its former haunts—a 
thing above all which mankind has sought to 
avoid by many a childish subterfuge. 

In countries where the sacrifice of animals 
formed part of the religious rites, it frequently 
took place where the dead were buried, in order 
that they might have their part in the consumption 
of the meat thus provided. 

Where the belief exists, as in China, that the 
dead have a duality of souls, one of which remains 
in the grave in order to receive the offerings of 
the living, the importance of the food supply is 
seen, for it is imagined that the soul would starve 
if not regularly nourished, in which case, of 
course, it would not fail to make its appreciation 
of the fact unpleasantly patent to the careless 
relatives. 

In ancient Egypt, a regular portion of each 
man’s estate was set apart for the use of the dead.* 

For the purpose of feeding the dead, a tube or 
channel was sometimes used, connected with the 
mouth of the corpse, through which food was 
passed. 

Such practices throw some light on ancestor 
worship, and the severe test of enduring affection 
it imposed on those who had not only to 
reverence their parents during their life but also 
after their decease, the latter being considered as 


1E, A. Wallis Budge, M.A., ‘‘ Liturgy of Funeral Offerings.” 


102 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


a higher virtue, and the supreme test of filial 
affection, as being the more difficult of accomplish- 
ment. 

In this country, at least as late as the days of 
the Stuarts, it was a common practice for the 
mourners to drink wine from a cup placed for the 
purpose on the coffin, and in so doing to enter into 
a kind of communion with the dead. 

In the obsequies of all times, some form of 
feasting stands out prominently as an important 
and necessary part of the ceremonies. ‘There are 
always so many excuses to be found for celebrating 
any special occasion by eating and drinking that 
we may easily overlook the fundamental idea in 
accepting the practice as an ordinary form of 
hospitality. At first sight it does not seem 
unreasonable to account for the provision of a 
repast for the mourners as being a natural courtesy 
shown to friends and relations gathered together 
in order to take a last farewell of the departed. 
Knowing as we do that in days gone by travelling 
was not only a very difficult, but often a costly and 
even dangerous undertaking, it would appear 
rational enough that a substantial meal should be 
provided for the necessities of the guests. 

Before the introduction of such conveniences 
as post or telegraph, several days might well 
elapse before those relations living at a distance 
could be advised of the death, and several more 
days would be taken in travelling to the house of 
mourning, so that relations might have to be 
entertained for some considerable time before the 
family could be assembled, and the burial take 
place. Much as it may have been contributed to 
the continuation of the usage, hospitality was 
certainly not the origin of the funeral feast. 

The special object of the gathering was largely 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS — 108 


for the purpose of offering prayers for the soul, in 
the actual presence of the body, till the burial. 

Even if we credit the early Christians with 
enlightened motives in adopting Jewish and pagan 
customs such as shrouding the corpse with scented 
oils and spices, which much annoyed the pagan 
mind, it is significant to note that in the fourth 
century the charge was levelled at them that “ ye 
appease the dead with wine and meals,’ which 
even now hardly ceases to be true. 

Whilst the wake or watching was closely 
associated with special prayers for the dead, it had 
a further significance. We know in our own time 
how frequently the question of the manner in 
which the dead may have disposed of their 
possessions becomes a matter of excited interest, 
and we know also how old feuds which have 
smouldered for a generation or longer, may be 
fanned into flame by the unexpected turn of 
events, and especially so when by a sudden illness, 
or as the result of an accident, the natural order 
of the older generation dying off before the 
younger, is rudely broken. In such cases, priority 
of claim or complicated legal issues suddenly 
appear in a new light, strengthening hopes of 
inheritance, which had but a few hours previously 
seemed but very remote, or destroying anticipations, 
which, humanly speaking, had been held for long 
years to be certainties. 

If such is the case in these more or less moral 
and law-abiding times, when the factor of foul 
play is practically eliminated, we must realize that 
in the past, when family quarrels were considered 
as honourably settled by deeds of violence, when 
the sacredness of human life was not allowed to 
stand too often in the way of illegitimate desires, 
in such circumstances the house of mourning might 


104. FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


well become a pretty bear-garden, and the gathering 
of the clans the prelude to a furious faction fight. 
In those rough times, we should find death 
(especially if it came unexpectedly) looked upon by 
one side of the family, with ill-disguised suspicion. 

Thus the ceremonious viewing of the body by 
friends and relations before the burial—a custom 
to which we still unthinkingly subscribe—was 
originally an obligation, in order that those who 
were present at the death might clear themselves 
of any suspicion of complicity in foul play. Those 
who attended the funeral came quite as much with 
a view to satisfying themselves that murder had 
not been committed, and that the estate should be 
faithfully divided, as from any pious interest in 
the spiritual welfare of the deceased. 

There is yet another purpose for the funeral 
gathering which must not be overlooked. 

The funeral repast was at one time known as 
the “averil ” at which a special form of crisp bread 
pr cake and ale was provided. This was of the 
nature of the simnel cake, or the “ soul bread,” still 
used in Belgium at the funerals. The word averil 
or arvel means “ heir ale” or succession ale, from 
which we see that the feast was once considered 
not so much as a commemoration of the dead but 
as a banquet to welcome the new heir to the title 
or property—“ The King is dead, long live the 
King ”—or in lesser measure, the Squire is dead, 
let us welcome the young master who succeeds him. 

As we have seen in other instances, the 
Christian mind in adopting the funeral repast puts 
its own interpretation on the custom, and distributes 
food and drink freely on such occasions in the 
larger spirit of hospitality, giving at the same time 
alms as well as provender to the poor, and to those 
who were in need of support. 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS 105 


Considerable sums of money were often left by 
will to be spent in this manner at death amongst 
relations and dependents, on the expressed or 
implied condition that the pious prayers of all 
who participated should be offered for the repose 
of the departed soul. 

Whilst the rich might well purchase prayers in 
this manner in exchange for a liberal hospitality, 
the poor were not behind in such measure of display 
as they could afford, but they might well experience 
difficulties in provisioning their larders to meet so 
large a call upon their humble resources, so we 
find that in many countries it has been a usage for 
the mourners invited to bring with them an 
offering of food to augment the feast. 

Now this gift of the guest to the house of 
mourning where it still exists, is generally in some 
form or symbol as is also the gift of the house of 
mourning to those attending the burial. 

The averil as a rule was (to put it plainly) an 
unrestricted “gorge,” wherein the honour of the 
bereaved family was thought to depend much upon 
the quality and above all upon the quantity of the 
good things provided, both liquid and solid, which 
is very much the view held at the present time in 
the lower orders of society. It was sometimes the 
custom for the women to eat separately from the 
men, who were inclined at the promptings of the 
liquor to forget their grief and become amorous 
over their cups. 

Even the beast in the stable was not forgotten, 
which had contributed its labour in bringing the 
guests many weary miles to the feast, for it was 
against the canon of etiquette that the guest should 
carry with him the necessary fodder; the provision 
of which entailed another considerable expense on 
the host. In the days when travelling by road was 


106 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


inevitable, the stabling capacity in such an event 
would be taxed to the uttermost. 

Some interesting details as to the consumption 
of food on such an occasion is quoted by Capes 
from a record of 1309, when the provisions were 
as follows: 


“ One and a half butts of cider—five pigs—one 
hare—five sheep—thirteen hens—nineteen geese— 
one and a half gallons of oysters—two hogs—nine 
capons—one and a half carcases of beef—four 
‘bacons’ besides wine, ale, eggs, bread given to 
the poor and friends, and a fee of sixty-six shillings 
and eightpence to the Chaplain. Fifty pounds of 
wax was also used—presumably for candles.” * 


At the funeral of one Oliver Heywood of 
Thoresby (seventeenth century), the averil consisted 
of cold posset, stewed prunes, cake and cheese. An 
averil in 1673, which was considered as “ rather 
shabby ” according to the notions of those times, 
provided “nothing but a bit of cheese, a draught 
of wine, a piece of rosemary and a pair of gloves.” 

Amongst the poor, the mourners only expected 
to be provided with a special roll of bread, baked 
for the occasion, whilst the cost of the liquors 
consumed—trum, ale; or a mixture of both, known 
as “ dogs nose ’’—was defrayed by a fund collected 
on a plate placed for the purpose in the middle of 
the table, to which all present contributed. 

At the averil of one Charnock, things were done 
fairly well; eighty people were bidden to the feast, 
which cost four shillings and sixpence per head. 
The bill, we are told, was “ defrayed by a friend.” 

Fights were frequent in these rough days, and 
we read that “gourging,’ “pawsing” and biting 
were common methods of settling family disputes 


1 Capes, ‘‘ Rural Life in Hampshire.’’ 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS _ 107 


when the liquor had roused the mourners to a sense 
of injustice. 

Mrs. Gaskell, in her “Life of Charlotte 
Bronté,” in describing the Yorkshire villages at 
the period, tells us that “ the custom of averils was 
as prevalent as ever, and that after the burial had 
taken place, the sexton standing at the foot of the 
Open grave, announced that the averil would be 
held at the ‘Black Bull’ or some other local 
hostelry where the mourners and friends repaired.” ' 

Andrews, writing of Scotland in the last century, 
tells us that “there was a lamentable amount of 
ale and whisky drinking before and after the 
funeral. The company began to assemble two 
hours before the time appointed for the corpse to 
be carried from the house. If the deceased was a 
farmer, each of the guests was offered a glass of 
whisky at the gate of the farmyard and another on 
crossing the threshold. On entering the guest- 
room, a portion of shortbread and another glass of 
whisky were handed to him, a reverential silence 
being observed for a time, after which, conversation 
was carried on in whispers. When all the guests 
were assembled, the minister came, and a religious 
service was held, which lasted about three-quarters 
of an hour. This was followed by handing 
round cheese, oatcake and whisky, and afterwards 
shortbread and more whisky. Then the coffin was 
carried out, followed by all those who were 
sufficiently sober to walk straight.” ” 

Most of the accounts of state and official 
funerals met with in old records make much of the 

uality of the fare provided, in some such terms as 
“and this (the burial) done—to the place where 
there was a grete diner.” 


1Mrs. Gaskell, ‘‘ Life of Charlotte Bronté.”’ 
2W. M. Andrews, ‘‘ Bygone Church Life in Scotland.’’ 


108 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Prunes have been mentioned as an averil dish. 
They are accepted for the purpose on account of 
their black skins, which give a note of mourning 
appropriate to the occasion. In Belgium, where 
we still find many survivals of the funeral orgie, 
the cakes are coated with a dark coloured chocolate 
icing, and are served on black paper mats with 
fretted “cut out” edges, whilst custom dictates 
that only white wine shall be served in order to 
avoid the introduction of colour. 

It has been stated that the Jewish religion 
discourages any form of funeral display, and in 
contrast to the lavish hospitality of the averil, the 
guest of the orthodox Jew is only offered such cold 
comfort as may be obtained from hard-boiled eggs 
and salt. Apart from its sustaining properties, 
the ‘egg; like our “ Easter ego,” is ‘used “asva 
symbol of regeneration, whilst the salt as a very 
ancient token of incorruptibility, has been very 
frequently used at Christian burials. 

An interesting survival is mentioned by 
Howlett, who states that, “in Cumberland, the 
mourners are each presented with a piece of rich 
cake, wrapped in white paper and sealed, a 
ceremony which takes place before the ‘ lifting of 
the corpse,’ when each visitor selects his packet 
and carries it home with him unopened, and in 
some parts of Yorkshire, a paper bag of biscuits, 
together with a card bearing the name of the 
deceased, is sent to the friends.” * In this we 
clearly trace the custom alluded to, of obtaining 
prayers in exchange for a material consideration, 
whilst the more substantial gift of a flagon of ale 
and a cake given to the officiating minister in the 


1 England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘‘ Burial Customs ’’ (Curious 
Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm 
Andrews. 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS 109 


church porch (the priests’ lodging was frequently 
built over the porch in olden days) would be 
considered as partly in payment for services 
rendered and probably also for the merit of his 
special prayers. 

In the Greek Church (Macedonia) the “ Pappa ” 
or priest, who conducts the funeral service, receives 
a present of a dish of corn, cooked in a particular 
manner with sugar. This delicacy of corn 
symbolizing resurrection, and sugar the symbol of 
heavenly bliss, is made and presented to the priest 
by the women of the house of mourning on the third, 
eighth and thirtieth days after the death, and again 
on the first and third anniversaries, in order that the 
departed soul should be remembered in his prayers. 

In Norway the guests bring with them an iced 
cake on the sugary coating of which the initials of 
the deceased are inscribed. These cakes are 
carried in painted wooden baskets and presented 
to the widow or nearest relative, who sits in state 
at the entrance of the house to receive the offerings. 
In return the guests are regaled with wine and 
coffee in token of welcome—a huge feast follows.* 

The Chinese offer “helps” both of food and 
clothing, etc., of substantial value, and the same 
practice is common amongst African tribes. 

We need go no farther than Ireland in order to 
see a wake, which still retains the character of what 
was at one time common in this country. It is 
particularly reminiscent inasmuch as it has for its 
purpose the calling together of friends and 
relations to pray for the soul of the departed. 
The wake is as of old, the meeting-place where 
half-forgotten family dissensions are apt to come 
to light. It is an opportunity for a lavish display 
of hospitality, often far above available means, in 


1 Beatrice Harraden, ‘‘ Katherine Frenshaw.”’ 


110 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


order that the honour of the family, however 
tarnished in other respects, may be publicly upheld. 
The wake appeals to the Irish peasant as an 
opportunity to indulge in a “good time,” when 
whisky, snuff and tobacco will be pressed upon the 
guest, in return for a prayer for the departed; in 
fact, for the time being, the house of mourning has 
all the advantages, and none of the disadvantages, 
of an inn. That drunken riots may take place in 
such circumstances we may well believe, though as 
a popular gibe in fiction, perhaps something has 
been added to the Irish wake by way of picturesque 
embellishment. Excesses, it might be mentioned, 
are strongly discountenanced by the Church, 
whose priests are forbidden to attend a wake where 
drinking is likely to take place, and as a further 
measure to restrict abuses, the body is ordered to 
be buried much sooner than is the case in this 
country. 

Whilst in England to-day the formal funeral 
feast is frequently to be met with in country 
districts, it has become, generally speaking, an 
uncertain event, but there yet exists even amongst 
more enlightened people, an uneasy “ feeling ” that 
something of the kind is expected of them, and that 
wine and some sort of light refreshment should be 
provided on the day of the burial. Let it be said 
for their assurance that beyond the reasonable 
necessities of some hungry relation, the funeral feast 
is one of a series of degraded superstitions which 
follow in natural sequence after death, and that 
where it is retained, it is in ignorant fear of 
committing some milder form of sacrilege. 

Enough has perhaps been said for us to 
realize how our funeral repast, ranging from a 
matter of wine and biscuits to a good square meal, 
is only a survival of all kinds of pagan practices, 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS | 111 


which have no place whatever in modern life— 
another bogie which we carry along with us, 
fearing to let it drop lest it should rise up again 
and mow at us, or that our revengeful dead will rise 
to haunt us for showing a want of respect to their 
memory. 

There are various customs connected with food 
and the dead, not necessarily in the sense of the 
feast. 

In the seventeenth century in Scotland any 
milk, onions or butter which happened to be in the 
house at the time of death were thrown away, as 
it was thought that in some manner the spirit 
would enter and corrupt them. 

In Brittany, butter was purposely placed on 
the table when a person had died from cancer, in 
the belief that the disease would enter the butter 
which was afterwards taken outside and_ buried. 
In Brittany, milk might remain in a room with the 
dead, but water standing in a jug must be 
removed, lest the wandering spirit should be 
drowned in it. The opposite view was taken in 
other places, when water was purposely left in the 
death chamber, in order that the spirit might 
wash and purify itself and thus leave the milk 
alone—a very important matter at the farm. 
Water also played a part in the obsequies of the 
Greeks, who placed a supply in a jug on the grave 
of an unmarried man, to show that he had not had 
the nuptial washing—marriage ceremony—as also 
to indicate that he left no heir. In the funeral 
procession the jug was carried by a youth.’ 

On the Continent we may sometimes find a 
cup-like receptacle on the grave in which holy 
water is now placed. This is a direct survival of 


1 Guichard, ‘f Funérailles.’’ 


112 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


that used on early graves for the purpose of food 
offerings being made.’ 

Let us conclude our consideration of the 
funeral feast with a story which comes to mind of 
a country funeral, where the undertaker’s mutes 
were pressed into service to act as waiters during 
the inevitable repast. One of the guests, a local 
magistrate, whose sense of duty had led him to 
join a rather mixed company, was startled during 
a pause in the dull conversation—which had been 
carried on in hushed tones round the table—by the 
mournful voice of a mute, who whispered in his 
ear, “ Excuse me, sir, the corpse’s brother takes 
wine with you.” 

The procession conducting the body to the 
grave has always offered a welcomed opportunity 
for the display of pomp, circumstance and 
ostentatious grief, so prized by vulgar minds. 

The average man or woman can claim public 
attention only at marriage and burial, and on each 
of these occasions a nonentity becomes the centre 
of attraction in a ceremonial procession to and 
from the church. 

The Roman citizen dearly loved to garnish 
the funeral cortege with all kinds of theatrical 
embellishments, and once again we can trace in 
the custom the old dread of the return of the 
avengeful spirit, should anything be left undone 
which might give honour to the susceptibility of 
the dead. 

That retribution would follow, as a natural 
consequence of neglect, was the one certainty 
recognized by a people whose gods were so 
numerous and religion so involved that only their 
priests knew anything about either. 

Marshalled by the Dismal Trader of the period, 


1 Ed. Clodd, ‘‘ The Story of Primitive Man.’’ 











Pog e vor) 
f9¢e oot H} 





3 


ILLUSTRATIONS FROM GRECIAN POTTERY. 


Fig. 1.—Note method of constructing funeral pyre. 


hy 

(Fe 
Q 
i) 


.—Note wailing women, uncoffined body carried on bier. 


W . are 
4 an s 
: ar 





ao (net - - 
ae ‘St ee 4 ed 
: mA Ja te ve cae j “ y Paes 
<5 7 t —_ % > is ‘4 x< aap wage) 
“RO jaa eiies REST 
a i? ON Ce 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS _ 118 


who was appropriately dressed in black, the body 
was conducted from the house on the third day 
after death. The corpse had been washed, anointed 
and dressed in the ceremonial toga and placed 
without pall or shroud on a bier, around which 
incense was burning. In the case of a citizen of 
rank, the servants of the household acted as bearers. 

Wailing women were in the procession, giving 
vent to professional emotion, as a foil to the studied 
calm of the mourners, whilst the mimes followed 
after, wearing the ancestral marks described 
elsewhere. 

The relatives were placed in strict order of pre- 
cedence, the heir walking immediately behind the 
bier, his hair dishevelled, the folds of the dark grey 
or black toga which he wore held before his face in 
the approved manner of the old tragedian (who 
learnt the trick from him)—for the rest, there were 
the musicians, torchbearers and lictors. At some 
public place the procession would halt for the 
funeral oration, which was considered as a most 
important part of the proceedings, and from thence 
it wended its way outside the city walls to the 
pyre. 

The special prominence given to the servants 
of the household is a relic of the days when they 
were slaughtered at the graveside. In China 
they walk in front of the body, and are sacrificed 
in figure by the burning of paper efhgies. 

The wax masks used by the Romans remind 
us of the curious wax figures which are familiar to 
those who have visited Westminster Abbey, where 
the “ragged regiment ”—as it is called—forms a 
feature of much interest to sightseers. These now 
dilapidated portrait models represented at their 
funerals—Queen Elizabeth, Charles II, William III 
and Mary, Queen Anne, John Sheffield, the 

H 


114 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Duke of Buckingham, the Duchess of Richmond, 
William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham and Lord 
Nelson. 

They were either placed on the coffin or 
carried in the procession, a custom which was 
introduced towards the end of the fourteenth 
century in the case of royal or noble persons. 
The figures were left after the burial to mark the 
place of interment, till such time as a monument 
could be erected over the vault. 

In the Chinese funeral procession a banner is 
borne before the body inscribed with the name and 
titles of the deceased, whilst the insignia and arms 
of those of position are carried on a cushion, 
a practice common in all countries. 

In England, in the Middle Ages, the horse and 
armour of the knight preceded the corpse, the 
horse afterwards being claimed as a “ mortuary ” 
due to the church where the funeral mass was 
celebrated. The armour was either given to the 
next-of-kin or placed over the tomb, as in the case 
of Edward, the Black Prince, whose surcoat, shield 
and helmet, which were carried in the funeral 
procession, according to the instructions in his 
will, repose in his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. 

The sword, helmet and baton in the case of a 
Field-Marshal, are to-day placed on the coffin of 
the warrior, whilst his orders and medals are 
carried, as a rule, on a cushion in the procession. 

Even in modern Italy we still find traces of 
medieval processions, such as Lady Dorothy 
Nevill describes as having seen in Verona, which 
recalls something of the old Roman pageantry. 

Passing through the streets one day she met 
the coffn of a poor man’s child being carried to 
the church; it was attended by a number of little 
boys bearing torches—a remnant of the days when 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS = 115 


burials took place at night, and retained, as we 
have seen, by reason of the flickering torch being 
an accepted symbol of the uncertainties of life. 
Following this humble procession was the funeral 
of a child of wealthy parents, the deep notes of the 
bassoon accompanying the singing of a hymn. 
The body was followed by a long train of white- 
robed priests and their assistants, and the usual 
complement of torchbearers and mourners; by the 
side of the bier “four little boys were walking, 
wearing helmets decked with gaudy plumes, and 
each had a pair of immense wings flapping at his 
back.” * 

In this we see the old idea expressed of the 
angels taking charge of the little soul to conduct it 
into the spirit world, as the ancestors, represented 
by the masked mimes, were supposed to materialize 
for the same purpose. “The coffin was covered 
by a rich pall of green and gold, and upon it were 
wreaths of artificial flowers.” 

Originally the pall was the pallium or cloak 
with which the corpse was covered on its way to 
burial. When the use of coffins became general 
the pall ceased to be necessary for the original 
purpose, and it was then used for draping the 
cofin. This was probably an excuse to retain the 
services of the pall-bearer, for pall-bearing had 
come to be looked upon as a duty of honour and a 
mark of rank and esteem. 

In earlier times the pall, and sometimes the 
bier, was carried by those of the same rank as 
the deceased; as at Wellington’s funeral, when the 
pall was borne by officers who had shared the 
hardships of many campaigns by his side. In 
the case of a man who was of no particular estate, 
if married the bearers would be his married friends, 


1 Lady Dorothy Nevill, ‘‘ My Own Times,”’ 


116 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


or if single his bachelor friends performed the 
task; nor was the matter always left to any chance 
arrangement, for a dying person frequently decided 
who should officiate at his funeral—who should 
carry his bier, pall and torches. 

In the case of Royalty the pall is generally 
supported by princes or the nobility. 

In Scotland the pall was called a “ mort-cloth,” 
and in the year 1598 it was decreed at the Kirk 
Session of Glasgow, that a “black cloth was to be 
laid on the corpse of the poor,” a custom continued 
for two hundred years after, the “ mort-cloth ” being 
taken to the house where the body awaited burial 
and laid over it. The general assembly of 
Scotland decreed in the year 1563 “that a bier 
should be made in every country parish to carry 
the dead corpse of the poor to the burial place, and 
that those of the villages or houses next adjacent 
to the house where the dead corpse lieth, or a 
certain number out of every house shall convey the 
dead corpse to the burial place and bury it six feet 
under the earth.” * 

In country funerals, it is customary for the 
tenants or servants to undertake the office of 
bearers, as a mark of special esteem. 

The bier or “bear” was originally a very 
simple affair, of the nature of a stretcher, on which 
the uncoffined body was carried to the grave; at a 
later period it bore the coffin also. To-day, the 
bier is seldom used, something much more ornate 
being considered necessary to the dignity of the 
proceedings. 

The origin of a word is often helpful in tracing 
the origin of a custom, so we shall find that “ herse” 
is a French word signifying a harrow. The form 
of the French harrow was triangular—an iron 


¢ 


1Wm. Andrews, ‘Bygone Church Life in Scotland.”’ 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS | 117 


framework to which the spikes were attached. The 
hearse of the fifteenth century was a simple iron 
stand on the lines of the French harrow, with the 
spikes or prickets adapted as candle holders (the 
original candle-stick was a spiked stick, on which 
the candle was impaled). A contrivance of this 
sort was used, partly as a means of obtaining a 
considerable light, and partly for ceremonial 
purposes, particularly at funerals. 

In course of time, the funeral hearse became a 
very magnificent affair, and a great deal of fine 
craftsmanship was expended on its construction, 
It was sometimes made of brass and a blaze of wax 
candles flickered on the prickets. From each 
extremity of the triangle, supports were raised, 
meeting at the top, thus forming a framework, over 
which black cloth was draped. Fringes and various 
Ornaments were added, and often wax images and 
garlands served as further decoration, whilst verses 
and glowing epitaphs were pinned to the material 
by the mourners. 

Starkie Gardner describes the hearse-light at 
Osnabriick as a structure seven feet high, its 
massive tripod foot and moulded stem supports two 
spandrel-shaped brackets, fitted with tracery. On 
two sides of the triangle is a step-like arrangement 
of scrolls and spikes for fifteen candles, and on the 
foot are rings by which it can be moved. The 
hearse-light was planned to carry very large 
quantities of tapers to enhance the grandeur of 
great religious ceremonials, when the number of 
lights were so vast as to be compared with the stars 
descended from the firmament.’ 

Eventually the funeral hearse was made in such 
a form as to permit of the coffin being placed on the 
summit. 


1 J. Starkie Gardner, F.S.A., ‘‘ Ironwork from Earliest Times 
to the End of the Medizval Period.’’ 


118 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


In the case of the burial of a person of quality, 
it also carried the arms or hatchment of the 
deceased ; the whole structure was surrounded by a 
rail. After interment the hearse remained for a 
considerable time in the choir of the church, votive 
candles being burned in memory of the dead, and 
it became in this form a cenotaph or memorial to 
one buried elsewhere. 

The modern catafalque on which the coffin 
reposes during the service in the church was 
originally a temporary erection over the tomb, and 
was not intended to take the place of the hearse 
proper, as it does now. 

In Roman Catholic churches to-day a metal 
framework is commonly found, often of a triangular 
form, on which votive candles are lighted, and this 
is a remnant of the earlier structure described; it is 
still called a hearse. 

As has been stated, the hearse was by no means 
a funeral property only. The term was originally 
used to describe any kind of barbed grille or 
protection, such, for instance, as the portcullis—a 
strong framing of timber, vesembling a harrow, 
which was suspended above the gateway of the 
medizval castle, to bar the entrance in case of a 
surprise attack. In this sense the word here is 
still used in heraldry. As a screen of highly 
ornamental ironwork with a formidable row of 
spikes or prickets, it surmounted the tombs of the 
great in the Middle Ages, and on the anniversary of 
the death would be ablaze with candles. One of 
the finest examples is the Eleanor grille or hearse 
in Westminster Abbey, which was made in the year 
1294. Cases are on record of these hearses being 
removed from the tomb over which they were 
originally erected, and resold at a considerable 
profit to furnish later requirements. 


FEASTS AND PROCKSSIONS _ 119 


A pall or hanging of rich tapestry was used to 
deck the tomb on anniversary and feast days, of 
which the altar frontal, commonly used at festivals 
in Protestant and Catholic churches, is a survival, 
for it should be remembered that Mass was 
originally said at the tomb, which thus became the 
altar. Dr. Gasquet quotes the following from the 
will of Thomas Wood of Hull, draper, sheriff and 
mayor, who bequeathed to Trinity Church at his 
death, “one of my best beds of arrys work, upon 
condition that after my decease I will that the said 
bed shall yearly cover my grave at my ‘dirge’ and 
masse.” * 

When the public health became a matter of 
serious inquiry and new burial grounds were laid 
out at some distance from the more thickly 
populated districts, the old method of carrying the 
body, “chested” or otherwise on a hand bier, 
became much more difficult, and some sort of 
horse-drawn vehicle was found to be necessary. 
In country places a farm wagon was used for the 
purpose, draped in some simple manner, in order 
to add dignity to the procession. 

In the rural villages of Brittany, a pretty 
custom once prevailed. The body was carried to 
the grave on a wagon, used in the ordinary way 
fomcatry, corm. or farm», produce:~) Tiedy tothe 
uprights supporting the sides of the vehicle, 
branches cut from the willow tree (symbolizing 
resurrection) were bent into arches over the body, 
thus making a framework across which a white 
sheet was placed, forming a canopy. The wagon 
was drawn by a team of oxen and the priest 
followed the cortége on horseback.’ 

In like manner the body of the poet-craftsman, 


1 Dr. Gasquet, ‘’ Parish Life in Medizval England.’’ 
2 De Braz, ‘‘ La Légende de la Mort.”’ 


120 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


William Morris, was carried from Kelmscott one 
autumn day in 1896 to burial. The farm wagon, 
which bore the unpolished coffin, resplendent with 
red wheels and yellow body, was drawn by a sleek 
roan mare, led by a Kelmscott carter. Wreathed 
by vines and strewn with the traditional willow 
boughs, this “ hearse ” must have been a shock to 
many narrow minds, and the despair of the local 
undertaker." 

In the “ good old days ” when the roads (where 
roads existed) were so bad as to be almost 
impassable for the greater part of the year, four, 
or more generally six.horses were found necessary 
to draw the wagon on which the body would be 
placed, in conveying it to more or less remote 
places for interment. As, for instance, when a 
country gentleman called on business, or for 
reasons of state, to the capital, may have died 
there, his relatives insisting—as was customary in 
such circumstances—that his body should be 
removed for burial to the ancestral vault in his own 
parish. 

Collier, describing travelling in England in the 
time of the Stuarts, says, “ the roads were so bad, 
that travelling was very difficult. In bad weather, 
there was generally only a slight ridge in the 
centre of the road between two channels of deep 
mud. Instead of sloping gradually, the roads went 
right up and down the hills—rich men travelled 
in their own coaches, but they were obliged to 
have six horses to pull them through the 
mud.” * 

Conditions were so bad, that the experience 
described by the poet Gay was by no means 
uncommon. 


1«« The Life of William Morris.”’ 
2 Collier’s ‘* British Empire.’’ 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS 121 


‘‘ In the wide gulf the shattered coach o’erthrown, 
Sinks with the snorting steeds; the reins are broke 
And from the crackling axle flies the spoke.”’ 


In the seventeenth century when the King went 
to Parliament, faggots were thrown into the ruts 
in the streets, so that it was possible for the State 
coach to drive over the uneven surface. 

Evelyn gives an account of such a journey. “I 
caused her corpse to be embalmed, wrapped in lead 
and a brass plate soldered on, with an inscription 
and other circumstances due to her worth.” The 
body was thus taken to Cornwall. “She was 
accordingly carried to Godolphin in Cornwall in 
a hearse with six horses, attended by two coaches 
of as many, with about thirty of her relations and 
servants. The corpse was ordered to be taken 
out of the hearse every night and decently placed 
in the house, with tapers about it, and her servants 
attending to Cornwall.” * 

We are hardly surprised to learn that the funeral 
of this lady cost not much less than £1,000. 

Evelyn also tells us that he “went to Mr. 
Cowley’s funeral, where the corpse lay at 
Wallingford House, and was thence conveyed to 
Westminster Abbey, in a hearse with six horses, 
and all funeral decency, near a hundred coaches of 
noblemen and persons of quality following, etc.” 

The roads of Sussex were notoriously bad, and 
in winter often impassable. It was no uncommon 
thing for provision to be made in a will, by a 
clause, that the body was to be buried at a certain 
place “if the state of the roads permitted,” 
otherwise at a more convenient place, the selection 
of which would be left to the discretion of the 
executors. 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 
2 [oid 


122 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Costly as the conveyance of the dead by road 
must have been, in the old days the funeral 
procession was allowed certain privileges which 
the ordinary travellers could not claim. The 
“toll,” for instance, frequently demanded on the 
road, was not allowed to be imposed on _ the 
mourners, and on a long journey, this was a 
concession of some importance. On the other 
hand, the clerk and sexton of a parish through 
which the cortége passed were wont to demand a 
fee, which they would otherwise have earned, had 
the corpse been buried there, instead of passing 
on to some more distant burial ground; this 
imposition, it may be added, was wholly illegal, 
though no doubt in an age when the majority of 
people were quite illiterate, they would easily be 
frightened into paying a ,demand, apparently 
backed by the authority of the Church, for the 
clerk was a comparatively important person. In 
Scotland he was even allowed to conduct the 
burial service. Yet another illegal practice was 
“arresting ” the corpse of a debtor and withholding 
it from proper burial, till the debt was satisfied. 

Some extraordinary notions exist to-day in 
parts of Yorkshire concerning the legal rights of 
mourners in carrying a body to burial, and it is still 
believed that no trespass is committed, in passing 
through a private estate, if in so doing they are 
taking the coffin by the most direct route to the 
burial place appointed. Very possibly such a 
practice existed long enough to constitute a “ right ” 
as a relic of the days when the roads were 
impassable. The practice must have presented 
serious difficulties to the landowner, for it was also 
the belief that if once a funeral procession was 
allowed to make use of a private road, it was for 
ever after open for the general use of the public. 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS _ 1238 


Howlett, writing on the matter, tells us that it was 
a eaag for the undertakers to stick pins in each 
gate as the corpse was carried through, as payment 
of a toll to the landowner, thus preserving his 
rights.’ 

As it has already been stated, the ancient 
Roman law allowed no one who might purchase 
land to exclude from it access to such burial places 
as it might contain. In the Hebrides the peasants 
prevented by force any attempts to close the short 
cuts from the burial grounds to the sea, which the 
dead were supposed to use when they went to 
bathe. In Brittany in the old days, rough tracks 
were made from the outlying farms to the villages, 
so that the people might go on Sunday to the 
church or to visit their dead in the graveyard. In 
the course of time, proper roads were constructed, 
and the old tracks were only used for funeral 
processions. It was indeed considered sacrilege to 
conduct the dead by any other way than that by 
which their ancestors had gone before them. 
Unhappy the landlord who attempted to prevent a 
funeral passing by the sacred route. 

Many other curious beliefs have existed at one 
time or another affecting the conveyance of the 
body to the grave. It was considered a very 
dangerous thing to take the corpse twice across a 
bridge from the house where the death had taken 
place—to the church and back again to the burial 
place, for instance. If this rule should be 
transgressed, it was thought that the bridge would 
break, so in order to avoid such a catastrophe, 
chapels were frequently built on the bridge itself. 
The origin of this superstition is not very clear, 


1 England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘‘ Burial Customs’’ (Curious 
Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm. 
Andrews. 


124 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


though the crossing of water has been held as a 
prevention against the return of the wandering 
spirit. 

- Qne is also reminded of the fact that when 
troops are crossing a bridge the order is given to 
“break step” to obviate a supposed danger to the 
structure, caused by the rhythm of their tread; the 
band ceases to play to discourage a unison of 
movement. So also in the case of the funeral 
procession (often followed by a multitude of people) 
custom forbade singing or the playing of musical 
instruments whilst on the bridge. 

“Bumping” the coffin is another remarkable 
practice, considered to be necessary at the pedestal 
of every wayside cross passed on the journey, and 
also on the walls of the church, when the corpse 
was removed after the funeral service. This 
ceremony was performed by the bearers, anticipat- 
ing the desire of the departed to bid a farewell in 
this inarticulate manner, and also to serve as a 
reminder to Saint Peter to open the gates of 
Heaven in order to receive the soul of the deceased. 

In Ireland, should the cortege pass a church 
on its way to the cemetery, it was thought necessary 
for the “ socraid ” to proceed three times round the 
building with their burden before continuing its 
way to the grave. 

Traditional usages are worth conserving only 
in so far as they are beautiful from an artistic 
standpoint, or of value as symbols of some greater 
truth to which we subscribe. Consideration of 
these old customs will enable us to see in our 
modern funeral procession only a number of 
dilapidated survivals—and much that is reminiscent 
of the travelling circus. 

The modern hearse retains in a meaningless 
and degraded form certain features of the earlier 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS — 125 


shrine for burning “votive candles ”—for it was 
little else in its original purpose. The roof still 
exhibits something of the canopy form—fringes 
and trimmings are much in evidence, whilst a 
cresting of cast iron spikes or prickets on the roof 
and a rail running on either side of the coffin are 
quite unmistakable in their origin. 

The elaborate funeral car which bore the body 
of the Duke of Wellington to Saint Paul’s is a 
good example of the transitional stage between 
the hearse erected in the church and the sort of 
travelling shop window to display the handiwork 
of the undertaker, which we meet in the streets 
to-day. The addition of glass sides, often 
embossed with crude floral patterns (the passion 
flower predominating) in the manner of the public 
house door, is a further modern vulgarity. 

According to what you are prepared, or can be 
induced, to spend, so you will get more or less of 
the “ Dismal Trader’s ” sable horrors, plumes, palls, 
pinkings and furnishings, with anything from two 
to six of his flat flanked Belgian apologies for 
horse flesh, whose crimpy manes and swaying tails 
are so dear to his ghoul-like heart. The origin of 
the over-horsed vehicle we have traced to a 
necessity when travelling was difficult, having 
become an excuse for mere stupid display. 

With many painful memories of traffic held up 
for a funeral procession crawling along a crowded 
street at ceremonial pace, we are reminded that the 
traditional rate of progress is dictated by the one- 
time invariable practice of heading the procession 
by a cross-bearer; the pace was thus restricted by 
his stride, and that of the bearers who carried the 
bier. On the other hand, it is rather a vigorous 
swing of the pendulum to hear of a (motor) hearse 
travelling at the rate of thirty-three miles an hour 


126 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


—for which offence a Glasgow undertaker was 
fined the sum of £3. For the defence it was 
urged that being delayed in Glasgow he feared 
that the cemetery would not be reached before the 
gates were closed. 

Of course the motor hearse was bound to come; 
it is now more frequently to be seen, but is mostly 
used for long distance journeys. 

Too deep-rooted is the love of the old “ Charon- 
of-the-road” for his nightmare paraphernalia to 
readily adjust his mind to anything so obvious and 
decent. 

The first motor hearse the writer met with, 
some twenty years ago, was (symbolically enough) 
standing outside a public-house in a northern 
country town. There, sure enough, as might be 
expected, was modern mechanism tricked up with 
the traditional emblems dragged forward in a 
debased form, into yet another century. 

Let it be said here and now, that justice may be 
done, that conveyances, some more or less, and 
others entirely freed from the shackles of conven- 
tion, are occasionally to be met with in the streets 
to-day. 

Well designed on a consideration of first 
principles of fitness and utility, there is an 
increasing demand for the motor carriage as a 
conveyance for the dead—that it is profitable to 
the “ live” undertaker goes without saying. 

The stuffy funeral “ coach,” in whose grief-laden 
atmosphere we are still invited to ride, dates back 
with little alteration in design to the days when 
the family coach was requisitioned for the purpose. 
In the days of the Stuarts black coaches were used, 
not only on the occasion of the funeral but for a 
year or more after death. It was considered 
impossible to travel in any other vehicle, 


FEASTS AND PROCESSIONS — 127 


Many of our customs of “Court mourning ” 
dated from this period, when even riding saddles 
were covered with black cloth. The conservative 
mind still continues the practice of clothing liveried 
servants in mourning and placing black rosettes 
on the horses’ bridles. 

To send a coach for the funeral procession 
was a recognized mark of respect in the days when 
there was nothing between the stage coach and 
the private conveyance. Thus it became a test 
as to the number and quality of your friends if the 
cortege contained few or many such vehicles. 
The hired mourners’ coach, so prominent a 
feature in the undertaker’s outfit, is still considered 
in some orders of society as indicative of the social 
position of the bereaved family, whilst in country 
places the doctor’s carriage (with or without the 
doctor) is lent by custom in order to swell the 
procession. 

Describing the burial of his daughter, Evelyn, 
that sturdy old champion of the funeral “ decencies,”’ 
writes: “ She was interred in the vault, east end of 
the church at Deptford.” “ Divers noble persons 
honoured her funeral in person, others sending 
their coaches, of which there were six or seven 
with six horses.” * 

The velvet trappings of the funeral horse are 
similar to, and doubtless derived from the equip- 
ment of the pageant horse in the days of chivalry. 
The saddle cloth bears the crest or monogram of 
a personage of importance, as that of the officer’s 
charger is embroidered with the regimental crest. 
Even horse cloths and carriage rugs are decorated 
in this manner. 

The subject of the hearse must not be left 
without some mention of the funeral plumes. In 


} Evelyn’s Diary. 


128 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


those districts where this “luxury” can least be 
afforded, and where its appearance is, if only for 
this reason, the more incongruous, the sable plumes 
of death are sometimes seen. 

The roof of the hearse is covered with a forest 
of these forbidding ornaments and a sort of sweep’s 
brush nods from the horses’ heads—white in the 
case of the burial of a child. Thus do the 
uninformed love to do honour to their dead. 

As a symbol of estate the use of plumes is a 
very old one, whether carried in the helm of the 
knight, or on the dainty head of the débutante. 
Its use at obsequies is intended to denote the rank 
and social position of the deceased. 

On the plea that the use of plumes on horses’ 
heads caused “unnecessary suffering” to the 
animals, the British Undertakers’ Association 
urged “the trade” to discontinue the practice as 
from January rst, 1914. This decision was 
arrived at after “protracted inquiries,” surely a 
hopeful sign of “salvation coming from within.” 
We earnestly recommend that further “ protracted 
inquiries” into other funeral customs should be 
made by the same august body assembled. 

Yet another matter we may note before leaving 
the funeral procession is the ceremonial staff or 
“baton ” used by the Roman Master of Ceremonies, 
and still carried by the undertaker. It is in the 
nature of the Field-Marshal’s baton, which was 
originally a box, in which his authority was sealed. 

Wands are sometimes carried, as borne in 
royal processions by the dignitary known as 
“White Wand” who still breaks his symbol of 
office over the grave of the departed sovereign, to 
signify that his duty of attendance on his royal 
master is ended by death. 











THE’ DISMAL TRADE” "IN COUNCIL: 
(from an old print). 


, 


Sign of the now extinct ‘““ Company of Undertakers.’ 





AN EARLY FORM OF THE MODERN HEARSE. 





CEUA Deleon Vala 
EARLY BURIAL-PLACES 


THE earth is one vast burial ground. Even the 
chalk deposits favoured by the early cave dwellers 
are composed of countless millions of primitive 
forms of life deposited in the dark morning of 
creation. [hese caves made by the natural course 
of water percolating through the cracks and 
crannies, provided shelter for the living and a 
sepulture for the dead. Here flint was found in 
abundance, from which rude tools were shaped. 
A number of such caves are known to exist— 
some of which are even inhabited to-day. 

The excellent state of preservation in which 
so many of the remains are found, is due not only 
to the fact that subterranean work generally is less 
liable to disturbance than surface work, but the 
even temperature is also a great factor in the 
preservation of deposits. 

Baring-Gould describes a custom at once 
practical and ingenious, which was adopted by the 
ancient Gauls and Britons for the disposal of 
refuse of various kinds. | 

Bottle-shaped shafts were cut in the chalk and 
everything that was not required was shot down 
the aperture, till the receptacle was full, when a 
tree was planted on the top, and another hole 
opened up in like manner. These shafts were 
used as common graves for slaves, and are found 

129 I 


130 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


in France and also in the chalk downs of England. 
Several such pits were discovered in Nottingham 
—one containing a rusty slave-chain.* 

Little wonder that we find in the caves and 
catacombs an endless field for the investigation of 
burial customs, for not only do they contain 
remnants of the period at which they were first 
occupied, but of successive periods and peoples. 

When one of these primitive homes ceased to 
be used by the living, it was at once appropriated 
for the dead. The old fear of ghosts caused the 
living to seek shelter elsewhere: to this day Kaffirs 
burn down the hut in which a death has taken 
place. 

The alternative was to find some new abode 
for the corpse, and so reserve the caves for a more 
useful purpose. 

This led to the construction of the Dolmen 
(Dol=a table, men=a stone, Celtic) which gives 
an adequate idea of the forms adopted—a rude 
imitation of the cave which had been deserted, 
built up of cairns or heaps of stones. 

Later, earth burial became general, and the 
barrows or cumuli were commonly used. These 
were placed conveniently near to the villages or 
settlements, but sufficiently remote to avoid a 
dreaded proximity to the dead. Thus we trace 
both the origin of the tomb and the cemetery. 

From the earliest times the barrow was 
regarded as sacred ground, and near it the pagan 
temple was erected. When we look at our country 
churches, surrounded by rows of grass-covered 
mounds, we see a type of the olden practice very 
little altered, indeed, for the Christian Church was 
often built on the actual foundations of the pagan 


1S. Baring-Gould, ‘ Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of 
Europe.’’ 


EARLY BURIAL-PLACES 131 


temple standing guardian over the dead. The 
present custom of piling turf over the grave, 
though it may have some reason in allowing the 
disturbed ground to “ settle,’ owes quite as much 
to the barrow formation. 

The earliest burying grounds may be recognized 
by an irregular formation of grass-covered mounds, 
but must be distinguished from somewhat similar 
earthworks, which are of military origin. 

Johnson mentions the well-known tumulus at 
Taplow in Buckinghamshire. The remains of a 
church were cleared away in 1833, when it was 
found in removing the masonry that its foundation 
passed through an ancient ditch, for it had been 
erected at the eastern end of an enclosed barrow. 
Further, it occupied high ground known as “ bury 
fields.” Fragments of pottery, British, Roman 
and Saxon, and well worked flints, had been 
collected near or from the graveyards. It was 
evident that the tumulus had been intentionally 
enclosed when the boundary of the churchyard 
was first fixed. 

The same writer mentions the graveyard of a 
very early church at St. John’s Point, Co. Down, 
Ireland, where numerous pagan graves were dis- 
covered, arranged in a semi-circle, within which 
was another ring of smaller graves, the common 
centre being marked by a stone pillar. This 
admirable arrangement modern cemeteries might 
do well to copy. 

By arrangement with the owner of some 
property at Aston Upthorpe, members of the 
Reading University College recently made excava- 
tions and discovered Saxon interments in close 
connection with signs of the Roman occupation. 
Here they unearthed seventy-two coins, a bronze 


1 Walter Johnson, F.G.S., ‘‘ Byways in British Archeology.” 


132 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


signet ring, an iron dagger and some spear-heads, 
together with numerous fragments of bronze and 
iron of uncertain era. There were also found 
several pieces of plain and decorated Samian ware, 
and coarse pottery. But the most important find 
was an undisturbed Saxon interment. The 
skeleton lay on its back, with its head to the 
south; on the right of the remains lay fragments 
of a bronze bowl and a bone comb. In a leather 
covered wooden case an iron sword, three feet and 
one inch in length, lay on the breast with the point 
towards the feet. A little above the head was an 
iron ring. A tinned-bronze stud was found beneath 
the left knee, which had probably decorated the 
shaft of the sword. There were also a pair of 
iron shears, and the remains of an iron buckle.’ 

Very many such finds could be mentioned which 
are interesting as intimately connected with the 
study of the early practice of interments, but 
fascinating as they are, they lead too far from our 
subject, forming a separate study, on which a 
great deal has been written. 

Much also has been written about the greatest 
of all earth’s burial-places—the Pyramids of Egypt, 
in which the Pharaohs were laid. Yet no sketch, 
however slight, on the subject of funeral practices 
would be complete without a glance at these 
stupendous monuments of the dead. They still 
hold secrets which have foiled the patient and 
exhaustive labours of many archeologists of various 
nationalities who have sought to unravel their 
mysteries. 

Three large pyramids were constructed by the 
Egyptian kings of the Fourth Dynasty for the 
preservation of their royal remains. 

The great Pyramid of Cheops which took 


1 Reading University College Review, 1913. 


EARLY BURIAL-PLACES 133 


twenty years to complete was the work of many 
thousand slaves, who toiled ceaselessly on its 
construction. It is supposed that the stones of 
which it is composed were dragged from the Nile 
to the site on a track prepared for the purpose, 
and that they were placed in position by means 
of inclined planes of sand. 

Donnelly gives the measurements of the great 
Pyramid as 450 ft. in height and 746 ft. square. 
Some idea of its magnitude can be gathered from 
the fact that it covers between 13 and 14 acres of 
ground. 

Most careful measurements have been taken 
of the passages and chambers in the interior, the 
proportions of which are held to have a symbolic 
significance. 

A passage 49 ft. long and 11 ft. high leads to 
the sepulchre chamber. It is connected with 
other ways leading to various parts of the Pyramid. 

It is supposed that the Pyramids in their 
original state were covered by slabs of a smooth 
shining white cement, and the apex probably 
gilded. 

The Pyramids stand with their sides to the 
cardinal points, and are considered by the ancients 
as marking the centre of the earth. 

Believing that the soul remains in the mummified 
body, early Egyptians took elaborate precautions 
to ensure the preservation of the remains of the 
dead, and the Pyramids were built to protect the 
kings from the much dreaded despoliation of 
the tomb. Several less important Pyramids near 
the ancient city of Memphis contained the bodies 
of other important Egyptians of rank. Here also 
the priests made sacrifices and held various rites 
in the interests of the dead. 

Donnelly says, “ There can be no doubt that 


134. FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the Pyramid was a developed and perfected mound, 
and that the present form of their common structure 
is to be found in Silsbury Hill (Avebury), and in 
the mounds of earth of Central America and the 
Mississippi Valley.” The Silsbury Hill referred 
to is an artificial mound 170 ft. high, connected 
with ramparts, avenues, circular ditches and stone 
circles almost identical with those found in the 
Mississippi.’ 

In the early days of Christianity when persecu- 
tion was the lot of those who embraced the new 
faith, the Roman catacombs were used by the 
Christian community for the purposes of sanctuary 
and burial, for they well knew that the superstitious 
dread which the Romans had in common with 
the Jews for places of burial, rendered the laby- 
rinths comparatively secure, where they might 
even meet to worship with a minimum risk of 
disaster. 

That this was not always a safe harbour of 
refuge we know by the number of Christians who 
were actually martyred in the catacombs them- 
selves. 

Here in these underground vaults they buried 
their dead during the first four centuries of the 
Christian era. 

It must not be supposed that this form of 
sepulture was used by the Christians only. The 
Jews who shared the Oriental custom of interment 
in subterranean chambers instead of earth burial, 
also used the catacombs. 

The Jewish tombs are easily discovered by the 
symbols of the old dispensation, the Ark and the 
branched candlestick with which they are marked. 

The tombs of the Martyrs were the first altars 
upon which the Christians solemnized the rites of 


1Tgnatius Donnelly, ‘‘ The Antediluvian World.”’ 


EARLY BURIAL-PLACES 135 


their faith. So it was that when the bodies of 
those who had been put to death were removed 
from the impending plundering of the Saracens and 
Lombards in the eighth and ninth centuries, their 
relics were placed within the walls of the city (a 
privilege previously forbidden by Roman law), and 
churches were built over them. In this manner 
the tomb became the temple. 

The practice of placing several altars in a 
Christian church, which some have supposed a 
pagan survival of the “Many altars to many 
Deities,” is in reality a continuance of the primitive 
custom of celebrating Mass on the actual tombs of 
the Apostles and Martyrs. 

When with the growth of the Faith, churches 
became scattered all over the world, the “sepul- 
chrum” was adopted—a receptacle cut into the 
altar stone in which relics of the martyrs were 
deposited—a practice still continued in Roman 
Catholic churches throughout the world. 

The more wealthy Christians held title to 
certain plots of land for burial purposes, which 
later they shared with those of their faith. Thus, 
till such time as the Church could establish her 
claim to consideration, the common burial-places 
were extensions of these private properties. 

These burial grounds were much like our own, 
they were surrounded by hedges or stone walls, 
cypress trees were planted and memorial chapels 
or sarcophagi were built on the spot. The dead 
were from quite early periods interred in graves 
dug from the surface of the ground, and as many as 
ten bodies laid one above the other, each separated 
only from the next by a slab of stone.* Such a 
method would not be tolerated by the Jews who 


1Chas. N. Read, ‘‘ Early Christian and Byzantine 
Antiquities.”’ 


136 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


are forbidden to place one body above another, 
either on shelves, in the sepulchre, or in the 
ground. 

From this period the catacombs were guarded 
and preserved, and many of the mural paintings 
were executed, which are still in a wonderful state 
of preservation, and throw some valuable light upon 
many of the rites and ceremonies of the early 
Christians. 

Frothingham says, “A considerable amount 
of the subterranean art was produced, the cata- 
combs still being used for the burial of the dead 
as well as the veneration of the relics of the 
martyrs.” 

The fourth century brought forth the public 
use of Christian art during an age of mutual 
toleration under Constantine. 

In order to give some idea of the length and 
many ramifications of the catacombs, he adds that 
“if they were continued in a line, it is computed 
that they would stretch the entire length of the 
Italian Peninsula, but they do not extend farther 
than the third milestone from the city of Rome. 
In these labyrinths the graves are placed one 
above the other like bunks in a cabin, and in each 
reposed one or more bodies. Here and there the 
sequence is broken by a cross passage that leads 
to a small chamber, the sides of which are per- 
forated with graves. These were originally closed 
by slabs of marble or tiles.” He continues: 

“This is about the only distinction between the 
graves of the rich and those of the poor, of the slave 
from his master. Those who desired to dis- 
tinguish it from those around, either had the name 
engraved upon the slab or rudely scratched with 
the sharp end of a trowel in the mortar by which 
the slab was secured, or else a bit of ornamental 


EARLY BURIAL-PLACES 137 


glass or a ring or coin was impressed in the mortar 
whilst it was still wet.” ? 

It is not generally realized that a great number 
of catacombs exist other than those of Rome. 

Burials in catacombs took place generally where 
disused quarries or excavations presented the 
Opportunity, or where the soil was of a nature to 
render mining easy. 

Those of Paris are of considerable interest. 
They were formerly quarries which largely under- 
mined the city. 

As the capital extended its boundaries many of 
the once outlying cemeteries were surrounded, and 
in such cases the bodies they contained were 
exhumed and reburied in the catacombs, which it 
is estimated contain the remains of at least three 
million people. 

In the year 1784 the old burial-place of the 
“Innocents” was cleared by order of the Council 
of State, and the quarries which undermined the 
city and from which much of the early building 
material had been obtained, were cleared to receive 
the bones disturbed fram the city cemeteries. A 
shaft was sunk in the neighbourhood of a house 
known as “La Tombe Issiore” from a famous 
robber, who with a dangerous gang once infested 
the district. 

The cavities were propped up and enlarged and 
recesses provided to receive the remains of the 
dead. These catacombs were consecrated by the 
Archbishop of Paris in 1786. The work of trans- 
ferring the bones was done at night. They were 
reverently removed in funeral cars covered with a 
pall, and followed by priests chanting the service 
of the dead. 

In contrast with this respectful treatment it is 


1A. L. Frothingham, ‘‘ The Monuments of Christian Rome.’’ 


138 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


somewhat amusing to learn that at the end of their 
journey the bones were shot unceremoniously down 
the shaft into the depths below. 

The old tombstones were arranged in some 
sort of order in an adjoining field. 

During these removals, the lead coffin con- 
taining the remains of the notorious Madame 
Pompadour was brought to light, but it was 
destroyed three years later during the Revolution 
of 1789. 

The catacombs of Paris contain the bodies of 
those who perished in the various revolutions and 
massacres, for which the “Gay City” has been 
notorious. 

A certain Monsieur Hericast de Thury, an 
architect, arranged the relics in a systematic way. 
He also provided proper access to the catacombs 
by means of steps, and further helped matters by 
drawing off the considerable volume of water that 
had accumulated there. 

In the spirit of the Grotto the skulls and larger 
bones were set out in geometrical and patterned 
effect. 

Chapels were later arranged in memory of those 
who had fallen victims in the various social 
upheavals, which received such names as “ Tom- 
beaux des Victime,” “ Tombeau de la Revolu- 
tion,” etc. 


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CHURCHYARDS, CEMETERIES, ORIENTATION AND OTHER 
BURIAL CUSTOMS 


WE have already seen that the pagan burial-places 
were considered as something sacred and set apart, 
and how the early Christians inherited the guardian- 
ship of the dead, and erected their first places of 
worship on the actual site of the pagan temple. 
In course of time the substantial buildings we know 
as parish churches took the place of the poor 
edifices of wattle and mud. 

Cemeteries and churchyards were under the 
immediate control of the Church, and the clergy 
were largely dependent upon the fees charged for 
interment, in return for which they exercised a 
general control, and took the responsibility of 
seeing that burials were conducted with reverence 
and decency, and that the bodies left in their 
charge remained inviolate. More than this, it was 
their duty to satisfy themselves that the body 
brought for burial was not the victim of foul play, 
no light responsibility in days when the guilt of 
blood was deemed of small consequence. 

Even to-day, when civil law assumes all 
responsibilities, the Church has at least a nominal 
authority over our dead, for she it is who receives 
the body at the entrance to the burial-place, 
demanding an assurance that the cause of death 
has been investigated before conducting the remains 
to the grave prepared for its reception and safe- 
keeping till the day of Resurrection. 

139 


140 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


If we consider the vicissitudes through which 
the ages have passed, the ferce contentions for 
every yard of land, waves of unbelief, rebellion, 
wars and factions, we must admit that on the whole 
she has remained faithful to her charge. 

In this she has undoubtedly been aided by the 
superstitious fear of disturbing the dead, which, in 
lawless times has made even the most callous 
hesitate to take liberties with the burial-places 
for fear of incurring the wrath of supernatural 
powers, not the least terrible because they were 
undefined. 

In reopened pagan barrows the early Christians 
buried their dead, and we shall understand this 
practice better if we realize that the Christian was 
not necessarily an importation, but for the most part 
a pagan, converted to a new teaching, largely 
because it amplified his spiritual aspirations—such 
as they were—and in no instance more so than in 
the special reverence for the dead. It would be 
very natural then, that the pagan should wish to be 
buried with his forefathers, and especially so, since 
he had accepted the primary Christian doctrine of 
a general Resurrection. It was not till the ninth 
century that the consecration of cemeteries became 
customary. 

In ancient times, burial always took place in the 
fields outside the walls of the cities and towns, for 
before the advent of Christianity, it was not lawful 
to bury the dead within the city. In the year 752, 
Saint Cuthbert obtained leave of the Pope to have 
churchyards added to the church, as places suitable 
for the burial of the dead. 

Consecration necessitated a definite boundary 
being fixed for the enclosure of the graves, and we 
find many instances where it was insisted that 
consecrated ground should be isolated by walls or 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 141 


other means, and that special care should be taken 
that the ground so enclosed should not become 
neglected. 

At the consecration of a burial ground, the 
bishop walks in solemn procession round _ its 
boundaries, expelling by special prayers, all evil 
influences which might disturb the dead. Even in 
times of national crisis, such as the plague, this 
was carried out in the case where new ground was 
required for the burial of the dead. It is interesting 
to note what the modern “ psychic.” has to say on 
this ancient practice. 

“To the bishop also is restricted the power of 
consecrating a church or a churchyard, and the 
occult side of this is a really pretty sight. It is very 
interesting to watch the growth of the sort of 
fortification which the officiant builds up as he 
marches round, uttering the prescribed prayers and 
verses to note the expulsion of any ordinary thought 
forms which may happen to have been there, and 
the substitution for them, of the ordinary and 
devotional forms.” * 

In the year 1267, Bishop Quevil ordered that 
all cemeteries in his diocese should be securely 
enclosed, and that no animal should be allowed to 
graze on the grass which grew there. Even the 
clergy were warned of the impropriety of allowing 
their cattle to graze “in the holy places, which both 
civil and canon law ordered to be respected,” for 
this reason the Bishop continues, “ All churches and 
cemeteries must be guarded from all defilement, 
both because they are holy (in themselves), and 
because they are made holy by the relics of the 
Saints ane 

In 1348, Bishop Edyndon wrote “that the 


1C,. W. Leadbeater, The Theosophist, June, 1911. 
2 Dr. Gasquet, ‘‘ Parish Life in Medieval England.”’ 


142 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Catholic Church believes in the resurrection of the 
body of the dead. Sanctified by the reception of 
the Sacraments, it is consequently not buried 
in pagan places, but in specially consecrated 
cemeteries, or in churches, where with due 
reverence they are kept like the relics of the 
Saints, till the day of resurrection.” 

The custom of churchyard burial seems to have 
been suggested by the practice of the monastic 
orders, who desired to have the bodies of those of 
their community as near to them as possible, for 
they were considered in an exceptional sense, as 
very closely united to. the living of their order. 
Once started, it very quickly spread. The most 
honoured of the flock received the special privilege 
of sepulture in the immediate proximity of the 
church, but this, like most concessions, presently 
became a general rule. It was a nice question as 
to where to draw the line between those who were 
worthy, and the lesser kind. 

This wider tolerance had its sequel, for the 
saints were in course of time so elbowed by the 
sinners, that they sought seclusion in the sacred 
edifice itself. The pressure must have been great, 
for it was entirely against the spirit of the Early 
Church to enshrine a body under its roof unless 
that of a saint or martyr, for the corpse was 
considered as an unclean thing. Even as late as 
1682, the practice gave offence to the orthodox 
mind. Evelyn writing in that year of the death of 
his father-in-law says, “ By a special clause in his 
will, he ordered that his body should be buried in 
the churchyard under the south-east window of 
the chancel adjoining to the burying places of his 
ancestors, since they came out of Essex into Sayes 
Court, he being much offended by the novel custom 
of burying everyone within the body of the church 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 148 


and chancel, that being a favour heretofore granted 
to the martyrs and great persons, this excess of 
making churches charnel-houses being of ill and 
irreverent example and prejudicial to the health of 
the living, besides the continual disturbance of the 
pavement and seats, and several other indecencies. 
Dr. Hall, the pious Bishop of Norwich, would also 
be so interred, as may be read in his testament. 
Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, had also said, 
‘The churchyard for the dead—the church for the 
living.’ ” * 

In 1566, the “Assembly of Scotland” had 
prohibited burials within the church, and those who 
contravened the ordinance, were suspended from 
the privileges of the church. Such _ burials 
continued, however, despite the edict, with families 
of rank, who demanded to be buried apart from the 
common herd. 

Even to her own children, the Church has in 
special circumstances refused burial in the church- 
yard, not only to unbaptized children, suicides and 
lunatics (the latter being possibly possessed by a 
devil), but in particular to those, who, for one 
reason or another had been excommunicated; a 
whole parish was liable to excommunication for 
various periods for disregarding ecclesiastical law, 
during which time burials in consecrated ground 
were forbidden. In such circumstances it often 
happened that the body would be secretly buried 
in the night within the coveted spot, which if 
discovered, brought further penalties on the 
offender. 

So great a horror have the Jews for the burial 
of the dead anywhere except in the earth, that the 
Chief Rabbi of England absented himself from 
the occasion of a State National Thanksgiving, at 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 


144 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


which his official position entitled him to be present, 
not because it was held in St. Paul’s Cathedral, 
but because the Cathedral was a place of sepulture 
for the dead. 

At the entrance to most churchyards will be 
found a roofed timber erection known as a lich- 
gate. The term is derived from the German 
“leiche,” a corpse, for here it was that the corpse 
rested whilst the first part of the burial service 
was read in the days when it was not thought to 
be a fitting thing for the church to be used for 
the purpose. A lichgate is often added without 
reason to the modern burying ground, probably for 
its decorative qualities, and it may be met with 
even in domestic architecture. On an exagger- 
ated scale this now meaningless structure often 
forms the entrance to the “Limited Liability 
Cemetery” with its mock Gothic cast-iron palisade 
and other atrocities. 

In the days when the parish church was the 
centre of village life, to which all would repair as 
a matter of course on festivals and holidays, the 
churchyard was looked upon as the meeting place 
or playground of the village. Here, after the 
miracle plays were ejected from the church itself, 
they were performed till such time as the extra 
licence which their new surroundings afforded 
them caused them to be moved off again, this 
time into the market-place, where they still further 
degenerated; and finally ceased to be. 

We can readily understand how the graveyard 
was liable to desecration by the boisterous churls, 
who played their rough games, dancing, fighting 
and drinking on the hallowed spot. How rough 
their games could be we are reminded by the 
frequent entries in the parish registers of deaths 
resulting from the participation in such rude 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 145 


pastimes. That the services in the church were 
often disturbed, and serious damage done to the 
graves by the erection of booths and the like, we 
can well believe, but before we condemn this 
coarse conduct as necessarily irreverent, we must 
remember that the bond between the living and 
the dead was in those days something quite 
different to what we conceive it to be in our 
country at the present time. 

The untutored mind very often exhibits a depth 
of faith which is disconcerting in its simplicity 
and refreshingly contrasts with the pious veneer 
with which modern Christianity overlays its doubts. 
The following true story illustrates the point. 
An English priest travelling in Italy was invited 
to say Mass in a country church. Being very 
much disturbed by the noisy behaviour of some 
members of the congregation who were apparently 
discussing their private affairs very audibly, he 
spoke to the offenders, who were much astonished 
that he should be annoyed, “ For are we not,” they 
said simply, “in our Father’s house.” 

We may suppose that it was in some such spirit 
as that the people of the Middle Ages thought of 
their dead as very near to them, and probably glad 
to hear the noise of their merry makings. Very 
different indeed was familiarity with the departed 
of these honest boors, to the disgraceful neglect 
of the burial grounds, which was such a scandal 
in the eighteenth century. Several instances could 
be quoted to show that the belief still exists that 
the corpse is interested to know what is going on 
in the world. 

In Norway a space 1s sometimes enclosed over 
the grave, about three yards square, surrounded 
by a low iron railing, in the centre of which a seat 
is placed to hold two or three people. Here, at 

K 


146 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Christmas and on other special occasions, the 
relatives meet and discuss family affairs and matters 
of local interest for some hours, in order that 
the dead may be kept posted with what is going 
on in the world in which they once played their 
part. 

In other countries this principle has the widest 
recognition. At the time of the war between 
Russia and Japan, the Mikado sent a special 
functionary with a retinue to the tomb of his 
illustrious ancestors to inform them of his victories. 

At the Reformation, when certain doctrines 
were abandoned which- had served in a special way 
to link the living with the dead, some changes are 
readily marked which had far reaching effects. 
The Post-Reformation inscription on the headstone 
ceased to supplicate your prayers, and the old-time 
peeray for the soul of John Bull,” or the even 
simpler “ Jesu Mercy,” became a panegyric, setting 
forth the titles and virtues of the deceased as a 
trusty friend, loving husband and devoted father 
and the like, till it is little wonder that the infant, 
taken for the first time to the cemetery, wanted to 
know “ where the bad people were buried.” 

In the reign of the Stuarts, the social status of 
the clergy in this country had sunk to a very low 
ebb, and both church and churchyard suffered in 
consequence. Collier says that “even if they got 
a parish, they lived and worked like peasants, their 
sons were ploughmen, and their daughters in 
service.”* Of the churchyard, Evelyn writes, “I 
observed that most of the churchyards (though 
some were large enough) were filled up with earth, 
or rather the congestion of dead bodies one above 
the other, to the very top of the walls, and some 
above the walls, so that the churches seemed to be 


1 Collier, ‘‘ History of the British Empire.’’ 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 147 


built in pits... The fabric of the churches was 
allowed to go to ruin, and they were commonly used 
as barns or for other irregular purposes. If this 
was true of the church, the state of the churchyard 
may be imagined. But it was in Georgian days 
that things ecclesiastical touched bottom—the days 
of the hunting parson. Epitaphs of this period are 
often extremely coarse and profane. Ditchfield 
says, in showing the general state of neglect into 
which things had gradually sunk, “Services in 
county churches were not very frequent, and in 
London during the early part of the eighteenth 
century, when people did attend, they behaved 
badly. The poor Vicar of Codrington, in 1862, 
found people playing cards on the communion 
table, and when they chose the churchwardens, they 
used to sit in the sanctuary smoking and drinking, 
the clerk gravely saying—with a pipe in his mouth 
—that such had been the custom for the last sixty 
Vearsue bie) calls attention) to. the; tact. that) the 
churchyard in Gray’s Elegy is described as “ This 
neglected spot,’ and also quotes from Webb’s 
Collection of Epitaphs, published in 1775. 


‘* Here nauseous weeds each pile surround, 
And things obscene bestrew the ground; 
Sculls, bones, in moulding fragments lie, 
All dreadful emblems of mortality.’’ ? 


This was the period when in order to protect 
the grave from the ravages of man and beast, those 
who could afford it erected heavy iron palisades 
round their tombs, which were sealed with huge 
slabs of stone often devoid of any Christian symbol. 
What would our forefathers—so jealous of the 
guardianship of the dead—think of such neglect 
where “ bodies are buried within a few inches of the 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 
2P. H. Ditchfield, ‘‘ The Old-time Parson,”’ 


148 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


surface, and the dogs eat human remains, and bones 
are everywhere? ” 

Lovers of that critic of social abuses—Charles 
Dickens—will remember that haunting pen-picture 
of a neglected graveyard such as he had no doubt 
himself witnessed, which may serve to sum up 
anything further which need be said on the subject 
of neglected burial grounds. “ By many devious 
ways, reeking with offence of many kinds, they 
came to the tunnel of a court and to the gas-lamp 
(now lighted) and to the iron gate. ‘He was put 
there,’ says Joe, holding to the bars and looking 
in. ‘Where?’ Oh, what a scene of horror! 
‘There!’ says Joe, panting, ‘over yinder, among 
them piles of bones, and close to the kitchen 
winder, they put them werry nigh the top. They 
were obliged to stamp upon it to get itin. I could 
unkiver it for you with my broom if the gate was 
open; that’s why they docks it, I spose,’ giving it 
a shake. ‘It’s always locked. Look at the rat,’ 
he cries, excited. |’. Hi, “look!\. There he 'eoes: 
Ho! into the ground.’ ” * 

The observant will have noticed two peculiar 
things in connection with the dispositions of graves 
in the churchyards. The first of which is that 
they are arranged in such a manner that the bodies 
may lie with their heads to the West and their 
feet to the East, or “ oriented ” as we should say. 

Occasionally, limitations of space may over- 
ride this general principle, but only as an 
exception to a very old custom. 

Johnson mentions a cemetery at Charvaise 
belonging to the earliest iron age, and containing 
more than seventy graves. “ All but two or three 
were so oriented that the head lay at the west 
end.” ” 


1 Charles Dickens, ‘‘ Bleak House.”’ 
4 Walter Johnson, F.G.S., ‘‘ Byways in British Archzology.”’ 


; rea 00 nn 
He 
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My f 3 


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a a oa a 
so 


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LG ee : 
4 


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(Reproduced by kind permission of Messrs. Joseph Lyons and Co., Ltd.). 
OLD LONDON BURIAL GROUND 
(ot. Olaves, Harr street): 


This graveyard is typical of many of the old London burial-places—protected 
by heavy iron gates and railings as a very necessary precaution against the 
activities of the “‘ Body Snatchers.’”’ In most cases the earth is heaped up 
to the top of the surrounding walls, with the remains of the many thousand 
victims of the Plague. The continued use, and abuse, of these graveyards 
was a Crying scandal during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. 





BURIAL CUSTOMS 149 


It would seem that orientation is not primely 
of Christian origin, but a relic of the rites of the 
early sun-worshippers. We shall see the same 
practice in the orientation of Christian churches 
that governed the erection also of their pagan 
temples, the altar in each case arranged in relation 
to the rising sun. We may connect the matter 
even more closely than this, for many of our 
churches are built, not only in the eastward 
direction, but towards that point in the east from 
which the sun would rise on the feast day of the 
Saint to which the particular church is dedicated. 
In the sense that “ Christ came not to destroy, but 
to fulfil the law of the Prophets ” we shall find this 
and many other pagan beliefs carried forward as a 
Christian practice which probably contained the 
germ of some far-reaching truth. “° Infinitely 
older than the Church everywhere,” as St. Thomas 
a Kempis says of the Cross. 

To the Christian the burial of bodies with their 
faces to the East is the outcome of the belief not 
only of the resurrection of the body, but also that 
from the East shall come the final summons to 
Judgment. Hence in Wales the east wind is 
known as the “ wind of the dead man’s feet.” 

We shall find other funerary customs dictated 
by this doctrine, such as the burial in an upright 
or in a kneeling position, even upside down in 
view of the supposed upheaval at the last day. 

The second interesting point to note in the 
churchyard is, that whilst south, east and west of 
the church the gravestones are packed as closely 
as space will allow, on the orth very often no 
headstones are to be seen. In some cases we may 
find that additions to the structure of the church 
have been made on this side only, for the simple 
reason that there were no graves to disturb, thus 


150 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


leaving the ground free for building operations. 
Why is this? If you look carefully on the north 
side, you may solve the problem, for one or two 
stone labels overgrown with rank grass and moss 
may have escaped your notice, and the village 
gossip will gladly tell you who lies buried there, 
isolated from the rest of the little community, a half- 
forgotten tale of blood and crime or maybe of 
suicide. Here, then, they bury their outcasts, the 
murderer on the north, his victim in a place of 
honour, east, west or south. 

In order to understand the matter we must 
know that the north or-left-hand side of the altar 
which is, of course, in the chancel at the east end 
of the church, is known as the Gospel side, whilst 
the right or south side of the altar is called the 
Epistle side. In the Roman Catholic church the 
Epistle is read on the south or Epistle side of the 
altar, and the Gospel at the north or Gospel side. 

Before the Reformation, this country necessarily 
conformed to this Catholic practice. The under- 
lying idea of this is that the Gospel was preached 
to “call not the righteous, but sinners to 
repentance.” Hence the side from which the 
Gospel is read was delegated to those who, having 
committed crimes, were in greater need of salvation, 
and those so buried were said to be “out of 
sanctuary.” 

If it is thought that this treatment of the social 
outcast was too severe, what will be said of the 
earlier custom which denied him even so favoured 
a position? The body of the suicide has in all 
times been subject to some sort of penal measures. 

The Romans, who held cremation as the 
honourable means of the disposal of the body, 
buried the suicide and murderer, whilst the 
parricide, held in especial horror by a nation of 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 151 


ancestor worshippers, had the further indignity of 
having a cock—the emblem of impiety—sewn up 
in the sack in which the body was interred.’ Apart 
from the orientation of the body, there have been 
other superstitions in relation to the position in 
which the body is buried. 

To place the corpse face downwards has a 
special significance. An old superstition has it 
that an infant buried in this manner—if a first-born 
child—will prevent any further additions to the 
family. 

This mode of burial was also held to be a means 
of preventing trouble from a witch after death. 

On the occasion of a serious epidemic of cholera 
which raged in a village in Hungary, it was supposed 
that the visitation was due to the maledictions of a 
certain witch. Her body was therefore exhumed 
in haste and buried again face downwards, in 
order that the plague might be stayed. 

Astonished that this time-honoured remedy was 
of no avail, the villagers dug the body up again and 
after having turned the grave clothes inside-out, 
buried it once more. Even this did not have the 
desired effect, so once again the offending corpse 
was dragged to the surface, this time for the 
removal of the heart, which after being cut into four 
pieces, the quarters were burnt at each corner of 
of the village.” 

The separate burial of the heart from the body 
was once a common practice, particularly in relation 
to the funeral of kings and warriors. 

In this country it was the custom for many 
generations to bury the blood-guilty at the cross- 
roads, a practice which was not abolished till the 


1 Leopold Wagner, ‘‘ Manners, Customs and Observances.”’ 
2Rev. W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf, ‘‘ Folk-tales of 
the Magyars.”’ 


152 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


year 1823, when an act was passed insisting that 
such should be buried in unconsecrated ground 
which was provided by law in all burial-places, the 
hours for such burial being specified as between 
nine and twelve at night. 

So great was the horror of the suicide that 
even the passing of the body on its way to burial 
was a matter for special legislation. 

In 1582 the Kirk Sessions of Perth refused to 
allow the corpse of a man who had committed 
suicide by drowning to be “brought through the 
town in daylight, neither yet to be buried among 
the Faithful "—“ but in the little inch (island) 
within the water.” To trace the matter still 
further, we find it laid down by the canons under 
Egbert, of A.D. 740, that Christian burial was to be 
denied to those who laid violent hands upon 
themselves, and who thus act by any fault, so 
excluding those who may commit the deed in 
a state of frenzy. Not unfrequently the suicide 
was buried in the spirit of charity, without ceremony 
in the unconsecrated ground in the churchyard as 
we have seen, but the earlier practice was to take 
the body away from human habitation and bury it 
where four roads met. 

Various reasons for this strange custom have 
been given; knowing as we do, that one of the 
prominent features of the treatment of the dead 
is the terror which all ages and all peoples have 
shown at the possibility of the return of a revenge- 
ful spirit, we are justified in thinking that the real 
object was to confuse the mind of the departed as 
to the direction of his former home, and the fact 
that it was a common practice to anchor the body 
down by driving a wooden stake through the heart 
tends to support this theory. We see the same 
attempt to “ maze ” the dead in a sense of direction 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 153 


in another custom, for it was once considered 
necessary for the funeral procession to return from 
the graveside a different way to that by which the 
corpse had been carried, in order to render it more 
difficult for the departed shade to return if it had 
any intention of haunting the relatives. 

Some have supposed that the fact that a 
preaching cross was often erected at the meeting 
of ways, and used by itinerant clergy when the 
churches were few and far between, hallowed the 
ground to some extent, and in the shadow of 
the cross kindly hands might lay the poor outcast 
when the Church herself had refused him sanctuary. 

Wagner denies this in saying that “the true 
reason is that Teutonic nations always set up 
their altars at such places, and as criminals were 
sacrificed to their gods, the place of execution was 
there also, and it was for this reason that in 
Christian times the felon was buried at the cross- 
roads at night, a Roman custom intended to give 
the impression of a heathen burial. 

Many of these unhallowed places once 
removed from populated districts, spots avoided 
by the traveller—especially after dark—have now 
been embraced by the ever-widening boundaries of 
the towns. Who, for instance, gives a passing 
thought as he rattles through prosaic St. John’s 
Wood on a bus, by the little triangle of green 
opposite St. John’s Chapel and Lord’s Cricket 
Ground, where lies buried at the cross-roads, with 
a stake through his heart, John Mortland, who 
in 1823 murdered Sir Warwick Bampfylde in 
Montague Square, and afterwards died by his own 
hand.* ‘This was probably the last case of cross- 
road burial, as the Act prohibiting the practice 


1 Leopold Wagner, ‘‘ Manners, Customs and Observances.’’ 
2A, Montgomery Eyre, ‘‘ St. John’s Wood.”’ 


154 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


was passed the same year. Not only were 
murderers and suicides buried “ out of sanctuary,” 
but others, who for one reason or another were not 
considered fit to lie with the elect, were buried 
apart. 

To-day if an actor achieves a place of honour 
in his art, he stands a reasonable chance of 
sepulture in Westminster Abbey, though his fame 
may scarce survive the generation which so 
honours him; yet in France it was not till the 
Revolution that stage players were even allowed 
the common right of burial in consecrated ground. 
The graveyards were divided into various parts; 
suicides, strangers, the unbaptized, and women who 
died in childbirth all had their separate allotments. 

In Tyrone there is a male burial ground which 
women are not even allowed to enter, for it is 
supposed that the dead are very jealous about the 
company they keep, and would rise from their 
graves, if necessary, to eject a stranger.’ 

In Brittany in the Cemetery of Lanrevoare, 
7,727 ° oaints” are said to be buried; into\this 
holy place you may not enter without first removing 
your boots, or it is feared that you may share the 
horrible fate of the stranger, who disregarding the 
injunction, “fell backwards so that his entrails 
came out and spread around him.” 

We have been inclined to suppose that whatever 
disadvantage death may bring, it would have 
certain advantages, not the least of these being a 
final freedom from all kinds of social obligations 
and class distinctions, and we may be surprised to 
find that this commonplace thought has by no 
means been generally accepted. 

The following advertisement appeared in The 
Times (1914). “A family vault for sale (under 


1 Lady Wilde, ‘‘ Ancient Legends of Ireland.’’ 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 155 


cost) in the best part of Highgate Cemetery.” * 
And we have seen with what indecent haste 
privileged places of burial have been sought by 
those who insisted even in the face of the law, to 
separate their dust from that of the common herd. 
Closed in their walled domain, subdivided into 
distinctions of consecrated and _ unconsecrated 
ground, these communities of the dead have to the 
superstitious mind been associated with the functions 
of the living, and all sorts of queer beliefs have at 
various times been accepted. 

It was, for instance, a tradition in many 
countries that the last person buried had to act 
as a watchman over the graveyard till relieved of 
his office by a newcomer, and in certain parts of 
Ireland, the gravedigger would leave a pipe and 
tobacco for the solace of the ghost during his hours 
of vigil, a special box being kept on the grave for 
the purpose. 

In Brittany also, the latest arrival is commanded 
by the old guard to get up and take over his duties.* 

Naturally the post was unpopular and one to 
be avoided if possible, thus when two bodies 
arrived for interment at the same time, a rush was 
made by the friends of the deceased in order to 
avoid the corpse they carried being “ last man in.” 
This led to words, and words to blows, the corpse 
being left while the mourners fought the matter to 
a finish. 

That those who are newly dead suffer from 
thirst has been very generally accepted, as shown 
by the old custom of placing a basin of water after 
the funeral in the room where the body had lain. 
The duty of quenching the thirst of the dead was 
added in Ireland to the functions of the watchman. 


1The Times, November 6th, 1914. 
7 De Braz, ‘‘ La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons.”’ 


156 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


At Kilmurry the last person to be buried has to 
moisten the lips of the souls in purgatory, and in 
the cemetery at Kilranelach a well is provided to 
supply the water, with wooden bowls for the 
purpose, which for some reason not very clear, are 
presented to the cemetery by those who bury 
children under five years of age; here the soul of 
the last person buried must offer a bowl of water 
to each of his predecessors till he is relieved of his 
office by a newcomer." 

We meet with a variation of this belief in 
Brittany, where the last man to die in the year in 
each parish becomes the “ Ankow” of that parish 
for the year that follows. The “Ankow” is 
Death personified, who summons in various ways 
the souls of those who are about to die.’ 

Various means have been adopted to dispose of 
the dead other than those of burial or incineration 
in the generally accepted form; of such, perhaps, 
the best known is practised by the Parsees, who 
place the corpse on a tower or on the tree-tops, there 
to be devoured by the vultures. At first sight this 
might seem a callous and inhuman practice, but the 
motive underlying it is not without beauty. It 
arises from the belief that the elements are sacred, 
therefore to bury the body is to defile the earth; to 
burn it would defile the five, and to cast it adrift on 
the viver, as some people have done in order that it 
might float out to sea, is held as defiling the water. 

This, then, is the reason why the bodies are 
exposed on the walls of the tower, where the vultures 
having removed the flesh, the sun-bleached bones 
are swept into the depths of the structure by an 
attendant, in order to make room for others to be 
treated in a like manner. 


1K. L. Pyne, ‘‘ Burial Superstitions in County Cork.’’ 
* Arthur Ransome, The English Review, October, 1914. 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 157 


Holding such religious views, we may surely 
admit that the process—however little it may com- 
mend itself to us—is at least a reasonably sanitary 
manner of overcoming a difficult problem, and we 
may well acquit the Parsees of any wilful irrever- 
ence towards their dead. ‘There is even a side to 
the matter which should appeal to a liberal Christian 
view, and that is in the thought that whatever the 
social position of the deceased, no difference is made 
in the final disposal of the body. Whatever barriers 
of wealth or birth may have separated individuals 
during life, naked and side by side they face the 
last ordeal in the spirit of common brotherhood. 

The celebrated Towers of Silence on the Hill 
of Malabar are objects of great curiosity to visitors, 
as from the beautiful gardens which surround the 
buildings, they view with morbid interest the great 
birds of prey which hover over the spot. 

The Parsees are not alone in leaving the dead 
to be devoured by birds or beasts. 

Certain of the Kaffir tribes purposely abandon 
the body to the tender consideration of the jackals, 
so do the nomads of the plains of Central Asia, 
who first cut the body into small pieces, and leave 
it in the open for the wild beasts to devour. Packs 
of dogs were once kept for the purpose in the 
villages, the rich having the privilege of owning 
their own “undertakers.” In Asiatic Siberia, the 
flesh was given to the dogs, the bones being 
preserved and religiously treasured. 

The Persians have a great horror of all burial 
grounds, the poetical trend of their minds leading 
them to look upon the light of the sun and the 
purity of the air as a birthright from which, even 
in death, they refuse to be separated. The 
thought of walling up the body, or placing it in the 
dark depths of the earth, holds a special terror to 


158 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


their minds. They believe that the sun demands 
from each individual when death takes place, a 
return of those life-giving elements with which it 
has endowed the body during its physical existence. 
What is decomposition, the Persian argues, but the 
natural process by which the material elements are 
given back to the sun, the author of all forms of life? 
For this reason, the corpse with its feet to the East, 
is placed on a slab of jasper, which is then deposited 
on the top of a high column, in order that it may 
be secure from the attention of unclean beasts. 
For several days the remains are thus left undis- 
turbed, during which time the heat of the sun, 
attracted by the polished surface of the marble slab, 
dries up the fluids. When this state has been 
reached, the birds of prey—which have been wheel- 
ing round the body—now settle to consume the dried 
flesh, a sign to the mourners who are watching, that 
the debt due to the sun has been satisfied, and that 
the birds have come to bear away the soul to the 
place of spiritual bliss which awaits it on the summit 
of the sacred mountains. 

It is from the pages of the ancient Sagas that 
we learn how the dead Norseman was sent out to 
sea in his Viking ship, wrapped in a pall of flames, 
as befits a chief—with all his personal belongings 
about him. ‘This practice of sending the body to 
sea (a symbol of the source of life) is to be met with 
in many parts of the world. ‘The natives of Borneo 
have a similar custom, whilst the placing of the 
dead in the sacred river Ganges has been held to 
account in a large measure for the spread of cholera 
in India. Drying and preserving the corpse, and 
keeping it uncofhined, is another method of which 
we have many examples. Sometimes the remains 
are smoke-cured or partially burnt. In the Hayti 
Islands, the body so treated is dressed in its best 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 159 


apparel, when it is either suspended from or lodged 
against the walls of the house of its relatives. 

At the Monastery of Krewzberg at Bonn, and 
also in that of the Capucine at Palermo, the mum- 
mified bodies of the defunct brethren, dressed in 
habit of their order, are arranged in rows, in various 
life-like attitudes in the vaults; forming a horribly 
fascinating exhibition which never fails to interest 
the privileged tourist. 

Burials other than in the churchyard or cemetery 
have been common in all ages, when excommunica- 
tion or other causes rendered it necessary. 

The body of the victim of an accident is often 
buried by the roadside where the death took place, 
the spot being marked by a cross. Reference has 
already been made to burial at cross-roads, when 
for one reason or another, the Church has refused 
burial in consecrated ground—or in those cases 
where churchyard burial was not desired, bodies 
were frequently laid to rest in gardens or orchards. 
This method of disposal was at one time quite 
common; Wagner, it will be remembered, prepared 
a grave during his lifetime in his own garden, and 
loved to introduce the subject of death to his guests 
at the dinner-table, taking them into the garden 
to see his last resting-place, and back again to 
finish their meal with what appetite they might 
have left. 

Sometimes consecrated ground is not available, 
as in the scattered hamlets in the mountainous 
regions of Norway, where the body has to be 
removed to the valley for burial, it is impossible, 
owing to the narrow and slippery mountain tracks, 
to carry it in a coffin. In these circumstances the 
corpse is strapped on a pack saddle as the body of 
the Corsican chief is tied to his horse, and the 
procession with its strange load winds its way down 


160 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the zigzag paths to the plains below. It may 
happen that the body has the further advantage of 
crossing the fiords in a canoe to where the church is 
situated. 

There are occasions, however, where burial in 
consecrated ground is out of the question owing 
to the widely scattered habitations, and in such 
cases the body is reverently laid to rest without any 
ceremony—except, maybe, the singing of a hymn— 
at some spot selected in the fields. A piece of 
wood is placed over the grave, to mark the place 
of interment. Sooner or later, perhaps after the 
lapse of several weeks, the Pastor will find this 
simple monument; he knows quite well what it 
means, and dismounting from his sturdy pony, he 
reads the liturgical prayers which circumstances 
denied to the dead when the grave was opened.’ 

Like all people who live very near to nature in 
its wilder moods, the Scandinavians have very little 
fear of death. Many centuries ago, they had a 
horrible custom, which was probably the outcome 
of their frank acceptance of death as a physical fact 
of no great importance. In those days, when it so 
happened that a serf or dependent had a greater 
number of children than his labours enabled him 
to support, his feudal lord had them all placed in 
an open grave, where they were heartlessly left to 
perish. 

Naturally the stronger and more vigorous of the 
unhappy children would survive the ordeal longer 
than those who were weaker, and therefore of less 
value to their master. ‘By this crude test, the 
strongest child was selected, being dragged from 
the grave in which brother and sister had succumbed 
from want and exposure. . 

Perpendicular burial, common in the East, is 


* Paul Bureau, Norwegian Social Science (trans.). 


BURIAL CUSTOMS 161 


not unknown in this country. Ben Johnson was 
buried in this manner in Westminster Abbey. The 
reason in this instance would seem to have been 
an economy of space. It was at one time 
supposed that the small stone covering his remains 
had led to this tradition. In order to settle 
the matter, a faculty was granted for the opening 
of the tomb, when it was found that the body was 
upstanding, as it had been supposed. 

An eccentric person named Richard Hull 1s 
buried beneath the curious stone tower which stands 
as a landmark on Leith Hill. Hull was buried on 
horseback upside down, in order that he might have 
the advantage of position on the Day of Judgment, 
when according to a once popular notion, the world 
would be reversed. 

Thomas Cooke, who died in 1752, “stands” in 
Morden College, Blackheath, and one Clement 
Spelman of Nottingham is immured in a pillar of 
Nasburgh Church. 

Burial at sea, for such reasons of sentiment as 
Kipling relates in “The Voyage of the Mary 
Gloucester,” * or the scattering of the ashes at sea, 
are methods of disposal which have always appealed 
to certain types of mind. 

Such practices—except in the case of necessity 
—are strongly discouraged by law, for apart from 
the possibility of the body being eventually washed 
up on the shore it might very well aid criminal 
purposes. 

The Jews have their own ideas on the subject 
of the burial-places which they call by the beautiful 
name of “House of Life.” To them the family 
vault is forbidden, for it is against their doctrines 
to rest a body on a shelf; nor do they permit that 
one coffin should be placed above another in the 
earth. 


1 Rudyard Kipling. 


162 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Sanctuary was extended from the church to 
the churchyard, a privilege which one of the Articles 
of the Constitution of Claredon sought to repeal 
as far as goods were concerned.* ‘The actual soil 
of the burial-place has always been held to be 
sacred in a special sense, as consisting of, or 
containing the remains of the dead. It was used 
for various purposes of magic and sorcery, and 
many curious beliefs were connected with it. 

In Brittany it was believed that the dead were 
obliged to eat as much of it as they had wasted 
bread during their lifetime, whilst in Ireland a 
handful of earth taken from under your right foot 
and thrown on the funeral procession was accounted 
as a certain cure for warts. 

An old Irish custom also directed that the priest 
should bless and sprinkle a handful of earth on 
the corpse before burial, as it was believed that 
should this ceremony be omitted, in the case of a 
suicide, trouble might be expected from the other 
occupants of the churchyard.’ 

The otherwise non-Catholic usage of sprinkling 
earth on the coffin, as observed by Protestants 
generally, is reminiscent of the Roman custom of 
thus covering a body found unburied with “at 
least three handfuls of earth” whilst saying the 
prescribed ceremonious farewell. It was instituted 
in this country by a rubric in the year 1542 as part 
of the duty of the officiating clergy, and later it 
was allowed to be done by “one standing by.” 
The Jews placed a bag of earth in the coffin, each 
mourner present at the interment helping to fill 
in the grave. 


1J. R. Green, ‘‘ A Short History of the English People.’’ 
2 Lady Wilde, ‘‘ Customs of Ireland.”’ 


CEA Bal Bar ils 
TREES, FLOWERS, BODY-SNATCHING 


INSEPARABLE from the picture which the mind 
presents at the thought of an old grave, is the yew 
tree. Often of great size and antiquity, it stands 
as a land-mark, overhanging with extended arms the 
tombstone it shelters. Here we shall probably find 
the weeping willow dear to the heart of the 
sentimental poet, perhaps also box and cypress 
trees. 

The question arises, are they planted in these 
places for any particular reason? which seems to 
be answered by the fact that even in the newest 
cemeteries the custom is continued. 

To seek the origin, we must go back to very 
early times, and consider ancient rites, which have, 
like so many of our modern funerary practices, 
long ceased to hold any special significance. 

Abraham, it will be remembered, bought a field 
on the death of Sarah for a burial ground, but he 
was not satisfied till “the cave that was therein 
and all the ¢vees that were in the fields and in all 
the borders round about were made sure.” * 

Trees, we know, were at one time objects of 
extreme veneration and worship. 

To the primitive mind, movement was 
inseparable from the idea of life, thus the ripple of 
the stream or the whisper of the wind, or the 
creaking of the branches lashed by the storm, left 


1 Genesis xxlll. 17. 


163 


164 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the impression of some subtle animation dwelling 
in natural objects, very powerful for good or evil: 
and as such necessary to be propitiated, thus, from 
the earliest times, we find trees worshipped in one 
form or another. 

The early Christian missionaries had struggle 
enough to shake this deep-rooted notion out of the 
minds of our tree-worshipping forefathers, and in 
the end, it would seem that they were not altogether 
successful, and that their contentions ended up b 
something of a compromise, for we find holly still 
taking the honoured place at Christmas-tide that 
it held in the days when the Druids distributed it 
amongst the people at the great December festival, 
and if box and evergreen, banned by the Church, 
have crept into the sacred edifice, mistletoe is still 
out of sanctuary. 

Even the Greek philosophers gave souls to the 
trees, and the gods of the ancients had special trees 
allotted to them; Phyllis weeping for Demophon, 
is turned by the gods into an almond tree. To the 
oak supreme honours were paid, and the ash was 
but little less esteemed. 

‘“‘ Pat as a sum in division goes, 
Every planet had a star bespoke. 
Who but Venus should govern the rose, 
Who but Jupiter owned the oak? ’’ + 

The oak and the ash are trees particularly 
English, about which a number of superstitions and 
customs cling. 

The rowan tree or mountain ash was believed 
to possess special powers against evil spirits, and 
bundles of its twigs were hung over the farmhouse 
and cottage doors to avert the dreaded powers of 
witchcraft. 

Canon Mahé of Morbihan, writing of the year 


1 Rudyard Kipling, ‘‘ Our Fathers of Old.’’ 


BODY-SNATCHING 165 


1825, mentions “ Our Lady of the Oak” in Anjon 
and “ Our Lady of the Oak” near Orthe in Maine, 
as the seats of famous pilgrimages. 

The “clipping” festival at which the yew in 
the churchyard was trimmed, is still observed at 
Painswick, Cradly and other places. 

The subject of tree worship is a large one, and 
we must not be tempted to consider it farther than 
is necessary, in order to trace its connection with 
the almost universal custom of planting certain 
trees in the churchyard and cemetery. 

Various other theories have been put forward 
by those who do not like to admit pagan practices 
in Christian ages—but surely evidence is against 
them. 

Some believe, for instance, that the presence of 
the yew tree on hallowed ground served the 
purpose of providing the wood for the bows of the 
archers, and that by making the churchyard an 
arsenal as it were, this valuable and slow growing 
wood might the better be preserved from destructive 
or indiscriminate “clipping ”’; that the “ clipping ” 
festival, indeed, might have been a day set apart for 
the public distribution of branches suitable for the 
purpose. 

It is of course possible that the tree was so 
used, but it does not necessarily prove that it was 
planted for that purpose. 

In the days when the bow was the general 
weapon of protection and the chase, the local yew 
would have been hard put to it to provide 
anything like enough wood of a suitable growth for 
the archers. 

Others held that the great size of the tree 
protected the fabric of the church from the force 
of the tempest, and provided shelter for the 
worshippers. 


166 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Dr. Gasquet, writing on the subject, tells us that 
in the thirteenth century the guardianship of the 
churchyard was in the hands of the clergy, and that 
the trees growing there might be used for the 
repairs of the church, otherwise “as they had 
been planted to protect the church from gales, they 
were to be left for this purpose.” 

The duty of keeping the churchyard in order 
was the parishioners’, but that which grew on holy 
ground was holy, and the clergy had the right to 
the trees, grass or anything which grew there; 
further, the clergy were reminded that the trees 
served to ornament and frvotect God’s house, and 
must not be cut without due reason.’ 

Anyway, there were times when the matter 
seems to have been a fruitful source of dispute 
between the priest and his flock. | 

Sometimes an old custom when examined in 
the light of modern experience will be found to 
contain the germ of a scientific fact, and one is left 
wondering if the truth thus disclosed, was happened 
on by chance, or born of a knowledge with which 
we should hesitate to credit our forefathers. 

The architect who plans our modern garden 
cities knows well enough the value of trees as 
purifiers of air contaminated by the decay of 
organic matter, for the mission of the leaves is to 
turn harmful gasses into pure, life-giving oxygen. 

‘Then from their breathing souls the sweets repair, 

To scent the skies and purge the unwholesome air.”’ 

Was this common scientific fact known and 
made use of in the ancient days? Was this at 
least one of the reasons why these trees were 
planted in the crowded burial grounds, to cleanse 
the air from the poison arising from the ground? 

Whatever the origin, no doubt the continuance 

1 Dr, Gasquet, ‘‘ Parish Life in Medizval England,’’ 


BODY-SNATCHING 167 


of the custom of planting certain kinds of trees in 
graveyards has been due to their appearance, 
suggesting by the force of associated ideas their 
use as symbols of grief immutable, and the like. 

By some it was believed that the roots of the 
yew tree found their way to the mouths of the 
dead. 

The weeping willow, by reason of its form 
trailing and bowed in grief, as its name suggests, 
caused it to be frequently planted in such a position 
where it might overhang a favoured tomb, like some 
perpetual mourner. 

‘* All round my hat I wear a weeping willow, 
All round my hat for a fortnight and a day. 


If any of you ask me the reason why I do it, 
Tell them that my true love is far, far away.’’ ? 


But the willow has yet another claim to a place 
in the burial ground, for it properly derives its 
source of life from the stream, and is generally to 
be found on the banks of the river, or in damp and 
marshy places. For this reason it is the accepted 
symbol of resurrection, and its branches are 
borne by mourners at a masonic funeral. 

The value of a thirsty tree, in places where the 
gravedigger is troubled by water, as is frequently 
the case, will be obvious. 

Myrtle, besides its sombre appearance, is a 
symbol of resurrection by the fact that it is 
evergreen. 


‘The myrtle, laurel and bay stand for Victory. 
The maple for Authority.”’ 


Various kinds of fir trees are also planted as 
recognized symbols of death; for unlike other 
trees, the life goes out of them directly they are 
cut. 


SOmioong, 


168 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


The cypress has held the place of honour 
throughout the ages, in connection with death. 
The Romans placed its branches in the vestibule 
as long as the body was there, to signify that it 
was a house of mourning, and it was also carried 
in the funeral procession. 

“Rosemary,” says Ophelia, “that’s for 
remembrance,’ and in comparatively recent times, 
the mourners held sprigs of box and rosemary at 
the burial, and deposited them on the coffin before 
leaving. Medicinally, rosemary was held to be 
good for improving the sight and the memory. 

The sprigs were arranged in a bowl on a table 
in the entrance hall of the house where the friends 
and relatives were assembled, to whom they were 
distributed. 

In Japan, branches of sakaki are carried and 
used in part of the final ceremony—flowers also in 
abundance.* 

We must not forget the palm, the symbol of 
victory over death, which the Christian festival of 
Palm Sunday reminds us was used at the “ entry 
into Jerusalem,” and which is associated by the 
Church with her martyrs. It is often to be found 
engraved on the Roman tombs. 

A very curious superstition is worth noting in 
connection with the mandrake, a plant similar to 
belladonna, and credited with having a personality, 
or if growing in a graveyard, attached to the spirit 
of the dead. There seems to be no _ better 
foundation for this belief than that it roughly 
resembled the human form, having two taproots of 
equal length which suggested the lower limbs. 
When pulled from the ground, the small fibres 
breaking, a sound is produced which was readily 
translated by the imaginative into a “ shriek.” 


1 Mrs. Hugh Fraser, ‘‘ A Diplomatist’s Wife in Japan.’’ 


BODY-SNATCHING 169 


The Germans made the mandrake into dolls, 
dressing them with care and respect, and keeping 
them in caskets. 

Midnight was the correct time to dig them up, 
when all kinds of absurd rites were practised, a 
“black dog” being employed to drag them from 
the earth. 

Amongst other magical properties, they were 
supposed to be efficacious in the case of a barren 
woman, and are mentioned in the Bible in this 
connection.’ 

If trees have a close association with death, so 
too have flowers, and never more so than at the 
present time. 

The writer recently attended a funeral at which 
the value of the floral “ offerings’ could not have 
been less than seventy or eighty pounds, and this 
is not anything very exceptional. 

The fact that white flowers are almost 
exclusively used for the purpose reminds us that 
they are a special token of purity. 

It was the practice of the Primitive Church to 
crown the heads of virgins with flowers. 

In Corsica, when a young girl dies, the body is 
dressed in her best clothes, the feet tied with a 
white silk ribbon (to prevent the spirit from 
wandering on earth) and her head crowned with a 
chaplet of flowers by her friends, who thus address 
her, “ We your companions, in bringing you lilies 
and roses, bring you your wedding garland.” ? 

Besant mentions as a recent custom in 
Yorkshire, the hanging of a garland of flowers in 
the chancel of the church when a girl dies 
unmarried. The fact that the wreath was placed 
in the chancel, and that it was considered unlucky 
to carry away a piece of the ribbon with which the 


1 Bible, Genesis xxx. 14. 
2 J. E. Rossi, ‘* Les Corses.’’ 


170 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


blossoms were tied, and the still more significant 
fact, that as the wreath decayed, the pieces were 
reverently buried in the churchyard, indicates that 
it was looked upon as an offering to the dead, rather 
than a sign of condolence with the living.’ 

Sometimes a white glove was attached to the 
wreath on which the name and age of the maiden 
would be inscribed.” The white glove, like the 
white veil with which the Greek Church bury 
their dead women, has generally been used as a 
token of innocence. The white glove signifies a 
“clean hand,” and it is still the custom to present 
a pair to the Judge when there are no criminal 
charges to come before him, or, as at an earlier 
period, it was hoisted in the market-place on high 
days and holidays, a truce to those who were 
“wanted ” for various crimes, who might venture 
forth from their hiding places to join in the 
festivities only as long as they were so protected. 

From what we have seen of the matter, it would 
seem that the funeral wreath of white flowers 
signifies virginal purity, and if this is so, we must 
admit that it is singularly out of place for general 
distribution. 

Were we to ask the “mourner” why he 
purchased those wire-tortured exotics almost 
identical with a dozen others, which would arrive 
at the house of mourning at the same time, his 
first surprise overcome that anyone should question 
so universal a custom, he would probably say that 
he did it as a “ mark of respect.” Pressed a little 
further if his patience stood the strain (for people 
who are asked why they do things which they 
have never thought about, often seek refuge in 

1 Sir Walter Besant, ‘‘ London in the Time of the Stuarts.’’ 

2England Howlett, F.S.A., ‘‘ Burial Customs’? (Curious 


Church Customs and Cognate Subjects). Edited by Wm. 
Andrews. 


BODY-SNATCHING 171 


righteous anger), he might admit that he was not 
sure if he had intended to please the living or 
honour the dead; on the whole—since you question 
it—he would be inclined to think that his intention 
had been to show sympathy with the relatives, 
since the black-bordered card supplied by the 
florist contained an expression of his “deep 
sympathy and condolences.” If quite candid, he 
would be forced to admit that it was nothing more 
to him than the fulfilment of a social obligation, 
and that the half sovereign he paid for it saved 
him from the mental exercise of composing a 
suitable letter of condolence, which would have 
presented many problems, ranging from a struggle 
with the unaccustomed use of the third person 
singular, to the scratching up of suitable scriptural 
quotations from a rusted mind. 

The fact is that the funeral wreath is a survival 
of the belief that it is necessary to provide comforts 
for the use or delectation of the departed spirit; 
more than this, we may see it in at least an 
implied sense of sacrifice, for flowers were strewn 
to be crushed by the feet of the victor, as they 
are to-day thrown by children before sacramental 
processions, or used to line the grave. In the 
Highlands the grave is lined with heather. 

A story is told of a soldier visiting the spot 
where a fallen comrade was buried in a foreign 
country for the purpose of placing flowers on his 
grave. On his way he met a native carrying a 
food offering to the ancestral tomb. Amused by 
this superstitious absurdity, he asked him when his 
ancestor would come up from the tomb, as he 
would like to see him enjoy his meal. “ About 
the same time as your friend comes up to smell your 
flowers,” was the unexpected rejoinder. 

To-day, if we are spared the task of admiring 


172 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the tranquillity of the corpse (a treat which no one 
in the lower orders of society would miss) we are, 
at least, called upon to express a rapturous surprise 
at the beauty of the floral offerings sent by friends. 
“Aren't they lovely,” you say, in hushed whispers 
(for even to-day you are afraid of waking the 
sleeping corpse). 

Had we the courage of our opinions, or if we 
gauged the matter by the same standard of taste 
we use in testing any other beautiful things, we 
should find the funeral wreath neither necessary 
nor beautiful, but a foolish custom kept alive, and 
sedulously fostered for profit. 

White flowers, which as individual blossoms 
are charming enough, if one can disassociate their 
waxy perfection and sickly odour from morbid 
thought, gain nothing but monotony in quantity. 

Strung into the forms of harps, anchors, broken 
columns, etc., they are frankly vulgarized; and if 
this much may be said of natural flowers, how can 
we describe the “immortelle” in its glass case, 
with the added horrors of sugary doves and clasped 
hands—the despair of those whose duties it is to 
regulate the decencies of the churchyard. And 
how we long for the day when it will no longer be 
necessary to advertise “ No flowers by request.” 

“ May the grave of your ancestors be defiled! ” 
Of the endless variety of Oriental curses this is the 
most dreaded. Life, which the Eastern mind 
values cheaply, and looks upon philosophically as 
a fleeting and uncertain thing, holds no terrors 
half as fearsome as the thought of the spirit 
wandering as an outcast from the rifled tomb. 

To laugh at the childish precautions taken by 
people of all times and countries to prevent the 
dead from wandering from the place of sepulture, 
is to underestimate the terror which haunted them 


BODY-SNATCHING 173 


of being disturbed after death; and the certainty 
of retaliation, swift and terrible, which would 
assuredly overtake those who were rash enough to 
dishonour their remains. 

Nor was it necessary to remove the bones to 
incur the full force of supernatural wrath—a 
ceremony forgotten, an honour due, unpaid, 
neglect of any kind was certain to bring disaster 
upon a careless relative. 

Fear of the dead is the origin of almost every 
funeral custom which has come down to us to-day; 
from the pomp of the procession to the laudatory 
epitaph on the tombstone, to propitiate the acute 
sensibility of the departed. 

So sacred was the grave to the Roman mind 
that even when it was necessary by force of some 
extraordinary circumstances to sell the land on 
which a tomb was placed, the law forbade that the 
sacred spot should even be considered as part of 
the contract, nor might anything be done which 
Had@ethes elect (or jexcludino’ the relatives in 
perpetuity from the right of access to their dead. 

It would indeed be an endless task to chronicle 
the special precautions taken by all nations and 
peoples to preserve the dead from any form of 
disrespect; that the tomb itself should be rifled 
and the bones scattered was an unpardonable 
crime. 

The well-known injunction sheltering the 
remains of the immortal Shakespeare is a type of 
many to be found in this country. 


‘* Good friend, for Jesu’s sake forbear, 
To dig the dust incloséd here. ; 
Blest be the man that spares these stones, 
And curst be he that moves my bones.”’ 


Whether the gravedigger bears a charmed life, 


174 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


or the maledictions of the departed shade are 
really less potent than was supposed, it would be 
difficult to determine, but the fact remains that 
this humble and necessary official has constantly 
been called upon to disturb the resting-place of 
the dead, and to remove the bones in order to 
accommodate the bodies of a later generation. 

As hamlets became villages, and villages grew 
into towns, many old burial-places had to be 
rearranged and provision made against over- 
crowding. In order to meet this necessity it 
became a common practice to provide a charnel 
house or “ossuary” in connection with the 
cemetery to which the bones of the dead might 
be removed after a reasonable number of years 
had elapsed to allow for complete decomposition. 
This was done for the most part reverently enough, 
and was often accompanied by some form of 
religious ceremony. 

In some cases this custom, dictated by necessity, 
has even come to be looked upon as a virtue. 

In the Breton churchyards the “ossuary” 1s 
considered of great importance, frequently with 
sculptured figures, and surmounted by a “ Calvary.” 

Murray says in his handbook, “ To allow the 
rude forefathers of the village to repose in the 
grave is opposed to the ideas of purity and 
affection in these rude people; after a certain 
number of years the survivors are required to show 
their remembrance and respect for their parents 
and relatives by removing the skull and bones from 
the coffin and placing them in the “ ossuary,” 
where the former are arranged on shelves open to 
the view of all, each with the name or initial in 
black painted across the fleshless brow.” 

The removal of the bones is done by the priest, 
and a municipal official has also to be present in 


BODY-SNATCHING 175 


order to certify that the matter has been carried out 
in due order; as in our country, an official sanction 
has to be obtained before exhumation can take 
place. 

The wealthy Bretons enclose the skull in a 
small box made in the form of a miniature church, 
the roof of which is surmounted by a cross. 
Through the open door the skull may be seen. 
The door or peephole is made, as a rule, in the 
shape of a heart, over which is an inscription asking 
for prayers for the departed soul. These curious 
skull boxes which are carried in procession on the 
feasts of the dead, at other times repose in niches, 
or are in some cases nailed to the walls of the 
church. 

With the exception of those rare occasions 
when it is necessary in the interests of justice to 
exhume a body in a case where foul play is 
suspected, we have considered all the circumstances 
in which we are justified in disturbing a body after 
burial; unfortunately there are many records of 
wilful pillage from motives of plunder, ransom or 
revenge. 

The foolish custom of burying jewellery or 
money with the body has undoubtedly been the 
cause of desecration in the majority of such cases, 
and the practice is by no means uncommon to-day. 

Apart from motives of personal vanity which 
induces the courtesan or the professional beauty to 
be sumptuously arrayed and decked with the costly 
toys from which, even in death, she would not be 
parted, it is the custom even now for the symbol 
of office to be buried with those who have held 
positions of state, signet rings and official badges 
of all sorts, which offer a tempting bait to the rifler 
of tombs. 

Sometimes a sentimental attachment is held as 


176 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


sufficient reason for the interment of valuables 
with the body. 

The following is an extract from a will which 
was proved in 1916: “I wish to be buried in my 
wedding ring, and two medals taken from those I 
always wear put on a piece of white or blue ribbon 
and tied round my neck.” 

Evelyn, writing in 1685, says: “The King 
showed me a golden cross and chain taken out 
of the coffin of St. Edward the Confessor at 
Westminster by one of the singing-men, who as 
the scaffolds were taken down after his Majesty’s 
Coronation, espying a hole in the tomb and some- 
thing glisten, put his hand in and brought it to the 
Dean, and he to the King.” “It was of gold, about 
three inches long, having on one side a crucifix 
enamelled and embossed, the rest was graven 
and garnished with goldsmith’s work, and two 
pretty broad table amethysts (as I perceived), and 
at the bottom a pendant pearl; within was enclosed 
a little fragment, as it was thought, of the true cross, 
and a Latin inscription in gold and Roman letters.” * 

Even richer spoil than this was discovered in 
the time of Pope Paul III, when the marble tomb 
of the Empress Mary, wife of Honosius, was 
opened, where over and above the gold, forty 
pounds in weight, were curious vessels of crystal 
and agate, and many jewels. 

How far it is justifiable to rifle the tomb for 
purposes of archeological interest may be an 
open question, but even the most hardened delver 
must have had some doubts on the subject, as he 
gazed on the newly opened grave where the 
peaceful form of some long forgotten mortal lay, 
surrounded by toys or tools which, centuries ago, 
ministered to his needs. 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 


BODY-SNATCHING 177 


That the fastnesses of the Pyramids should be 
broken after thousands of years’ security, and the 
bodies of kings, to whom countless peoples had 
bowed the knee, removed from the place they had 
prepared with so much thought for security seems 
sacrilege enough, but that these royal bodies 
should be exhibited and ticketed for the idle 
curiosity of the British Cockney, opens up a 
question which happily it is not within our province 
to decide. If the opening of tombs for purposes of 
scientific research is questionable, what shall be 
said when it is done to satisfy the lowest motives 
of greed or revenge? 

There have been times of social upheaval when 
the public conscience was so blunted that the value 
of the lead from the coffins was thought sufficient 
excuse to justify the crime. At the time of the 
French Revolution the republicans ordered that 
lead coffins should be despoiled and melted down 
for bullets. 

In one of these orgies a workman tried to save 
the body of Marguerite of Lorraine, whose holy 
life and work amongst the poor had caused her to 
be venerated. He offered to make a new coffin of 
wood by his own labour, but was not allowed to do 
so, and with the rest, the remains held in such 
esteem were shot out of the broken end into the 
city ditch.1 Unfortunately the history of our own 
country will furnish instances of this kind where 
even the value set on the lead coffins could not be 
put forward as a cloak to malice. 

The body of Oliver Cromwell, with those of 
Bradshaw and Ireton, were torn from their resting- 
place in Westminster Abbey to be hung on the 
cibbet at Tyburn; a fate shared by the Puritan, 
Steven Marshall. 


1 Percy Dearmer, ‘‘ Highways and Byways in Normandy.”’ 
M 


178 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


In 1642 the soldiers under Sir William Waller 
pillaged the tombs of the Saxon kings at 
Winchester. Breaking open the coffins, they 
threw the bones at the painted windows which 
were mostly destroyed. The tomb of William of 
Wykeham was saved, it is said, by one Cuff, a 
rebel officer, who having been educated at the 
college, risked his life in order to protect the 
remains of the munificent founder from the 
plunderers. 

If we may well turn our thoughts with disgust 
from such scenes as these, the acts of a frenzied 
mob, how shall we excuse the cold and calculating 
brutality of Leopold of Vienna, who in 1670 
extorted from the Jews a sum of four thousand 
florins under threat of a vindictive desecration of 
their burial-places. 

In the early years of the nineteenth century, 
when religious life in this country was at its lowest 
ebb, and scientific research in the ascendant, a 
great scandal presented itself. 

The body-snatchers, or resurrection men as they 
were called, finding that good prices were paid by 
the anatomists for the bodies of those recently dead, 
opened up a nefarious traffic with the schools, which 
assumed the most disgraceful proportions before 
any severe measures were adopted to stamp out 
the evil. At this time the demand for bodies far 
exceeded the supply. 

The grant of four felons each year to the Barber 
Surgeon’s Company had been supplemented by the 
bodies of all criminals whose offences brought them 
to the gallows; good prices were paid for additional 
“subjects,” and no awkward questions asked, a fact 
which so encouraged despoilers of the dead, that 
it became necessary to set a guard to protect the 
newly interred whose remains were much coveted 


de . - _ 





(Reproduced by kind permission of Odhams Press, Ltd.). 
BURKE AND HARE, 


Two notorious “ Resurrection Men.’’ They flourished in Scot- 

land, their speciality being murder for the sake of the bodies, 

for which they found a ready and apparently unquestioning 

market at the Anatomical Schools. Sixteen murders were proved 

against this enterprising pair before they were brought to justice. 
They were convicted at Edinburgh in the year 1828. 


on Wemory of 


FRANK axD MARTHA TAYLOR 


(Aged respectively 39 and 35- Fears), 
And their Children—Maggie (13), Annie (11), Florrie (7), 
Freddie (5), Willie (3), and Georgie (20 Months)— 


Whose throats were all cut by the Father, duriny a period of temporary in- 
sanity produced by religious mania and influenza on a constitution weakened 
by hardship consequent on the great frost of 1895, about half-past five o’clock 
at 12, Fountain Road, Tooting, on the morning of 


THURSDAY, MARCH 7th, 1895; 


The only survivor of the Family being the son FRANK, aged 15, who was a 
witness of most of this terrible scene, and was left for dead by his father. 
The Eight Victims were interred on Wednesday, March 13th, at St. 
Nicholas Church-yard, Tooting-Graveney, S.W., by The Rev. Evelyn H.. 
Morton, M.A., Rector of Tooting-Graveney. 
9n Beath they were not dibided” 


DIPROSE, PRINTER AND BOOKBINDER, UPPER TOOTING, 





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BODY-SNATCHING 179 


for the purpose mentioned. Foiled by these means 
of doing business in the churchyards, it became a 
common practice for these rufhans to waylay and 
murder in the dimly lighted streets, any poor 
wanderer they encountered, with the sole object 
of making profit not by his purse, but by his person. 
After allowing this sort of thing to go on for a long 
time, at last the law rose to a sense of its responsi- 
bilities, and a system of licence was devised which 
did much to check the abuse; but the problem of 
supplying the schools remained unsolved, and 
remains so to the present day. 

There is no doubt about it that the pauper was 
exploited when his need brought him to accept 
the charity of the nation, and even to-day, we find 
amongst the poor a horror of institutions generally, 
born of such malpractices which were regulated by 
the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1844. 

Perhaps even more profitable than the sale of a 
corpse to the anatomical schools, if not so common, 
was the practice of stealing and holding the body 
of a wealthy person as hostage for the payment 
of ransom. 

A celebrated case of this kind was that of 
Charles Souter, sentenced in 1882 to five years 
penal servitude, whose romantic career was 
recently recalled by his death. He was found 
guilty of complicity in the theft of the body of the 
twenty-fifth Earl of Crawford from the family vault 
at Dunecht (near Aberdeen). The mystery was 
never completely solved. The family tomb of the 
Balcarres’ family was of massive granite, built 
under the private chapel adjoining Dunecht House. 
The last Earl died in Florence in 1881; his body 
was embalmed and taken to Scotland, where it was 
interred: three coffins were used—a leaden shell, 


1 Daily Express, January 6th, 1914. 


180 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


an inner case of wood, and the outer coffin of 
carved wood, richly mounted in silver. Some 
time after the funeral, a visitor to the chapel 
noticed that the slab sealing the entrance to the 
vault had been tampered with, but no importance 
was attached to this at the time. Later, an 
anonymous letter was received, stating that the 
vault had been entered and the body removed. 
This letter was also treated as a hoax. Some 
months later, part of the railing surrounding the 
tomb was found removed, and the entrance slab 
now lifted away and placed against the wall. The 
police were then summoned and the vault entered. 
They found that the coffin had been removed 
from the shelf on which it had rested, the outer case 
unscrewed, the inner coffin forced open and the 
lead shell had the end cut away, from which the 
body had been pulled out by the feet. The fact 
that the valuable silver fittings remained intact 
showed that this was not the work of a common 
thief, and it was decided that the object of the out- 
rage was to obtain a sum of money as ransom. 
Any hopes of this sort that the despoilers may have 
cherished were dispelled by a public announcement 
made by the family, that in no circumstances would 
they offer a reward for the recovery of the body. 
Meanwhile, many clues were followed by the 
police without success; even “psychic ” means were 
tried. Some spiritualists from London visited the 
place and declared that they had “ seex” the body 
carried from the vault to a house on the estate, from 
whence it was afterwards removed to a “field that 
slopes towards a wood.” Less vague was the 
light thrown upon the matter four months later by 
the man Souter, who in a drunken confidence 
offered to show his companions where the body of 
the Earl was concealed; when sober, he appeared 


BODY-SNATCHING 181 


to be frightened by his indiscretion, and on his arrest 
he made a statement to which he stoutly adhered. 
He swore that whilst poaching on the estate at 
night, he was detected by a gang of men engaged 
in burying some object, and that he only escaped 
with his life on swearing that he would keep their 
Secret. 

He was presently taken to the spot he indicated, 
where the body was found wrapped in a blanket, 
five hundred yards from the mansion, and covered 
with a few inches of soil. If he had accomplices, 
he never divulged their names and he died 
protesting his innocence. 


GH EAE Rais 
PLAGUE 


It is to be hoped, that with all that modern science 
has done towards the better ordering of our sanitary 
arrangements and the scientific treatment of the 
refuse of the cities, we, in this country, may never 
again experience such a devastating scourge as the 
plague which swept over this land in earlier 
centuries. 

Even now in India, China and other countries 
the mortalities from these awful visitations exceed 
anything we can imagine in our comparative 
security. 

There, despite organized relief, the death roll 
from plague and its fearsome companion famine, 
wiped out in the affected districts hundreds of 
thousands of human lives, and we cannot pretend 
to have dealt with the subject of death without 
consideration of the provisions made in such 
calamities to dispose of great numbers of bodies 
mown down like corn under the sickle. 

The Indian famine commission of 1898 reported 
that in the year 1877 no less than five million of 
the natives perished, and that during the forty years 
between 1860 and 1900, no less then ten wide- 
spread famines devastated India.* 

In the progress of the human race, as scattered 


eR. GC. Dutt? indian | veamine,’7 
182 


PLAGUE 183 


tribes became nations herding together in com- 
munities, for one reason or another, they became 
subject to periodical ravages of plague in various 
forms, fostered by uncleanliness, which claims a full 
measure of the natural increase of the population. 

Far exceeding all visitations of the kind in 
Europe, stands out the Black Death of the four- 
teenth century and the Great Plague of the 
seventeenth century. 

The Black Death which appeared in London 
in 1348, started in China and rapidly spread from 
country to country, leaving an appalling devasta- 
tion in its wake. 

Green says, “Of the three or four millions who 
then formed the population of England, more than 
one half were swept away in its repeated 
visitations.” * 

The Black Death left its mark on all phases 
of national life for a hundred and fifty years. 

Whilst no accurate estimate could be expected, 
the total death-roll is probably not over-estimated 
as having claimed twenty millions of victims. 

In attempting to relieve the most urgent 
necessities; of ‘the; ‘sick, the). great) religious 
institutions, which in the Middle Ages represented 
sanctuary, shelter and such medical care as they 
could offer to the people, were quickly over- 
whelmed and rendered powerless by the losses 
which they themselves sustained by infection, 
when tending the bodily and spiritual needs of the 
sick and dying. 

The reader who may wish to learn more of this 
matter will study the great authority on the subject, 
Dr. Gasquet.’ 

The outstanding feature of the Black Death 


1J. R. Green, ‘‘ A Short History of the English People.’’ 
2 Dr. Gasquet, ‘‘ The Black Death.”’ 


184 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


was the great rapidity with which it spread, proving 
fatal to every kind of life that it touched. 

It was brought to this country by traders at 
the ports of the eastern shores of the Black Sea. 
It spread along the trade routes from Bagdad to 
the southern ports of Asiatic Turkey. So sudden 
and violent was its attack, that the victims 
unhesitatingly abandoned all hopes of recovery at 
the first symptoms of the disease, thus rendering 
themselves unfitted to fight against the sickness. 

There is an old story which so well illustrates 
the effects of the terror it caused, that it is worth 
recalling. 

A pilgrim making te way to Bagdad was over- 
taken on his journey by a grisly figure. “ Who 
are you?” asked the pilgrim. “Iam the Plague,” 
was the response, “and I am going to Bagdad to 
kill a thousand people.” On his return journey 
the pilgrim overtook the spectre and stopping him 
said: “Why did you tell me that you were only 
going to kill a thousand people in Bagdad, whereas 
I found ten thousand of your victims in the city? ” 
“T spoke truly,” said the Plague, “I killed but 
one thousand, the remainder died from fright.” 

However, our present interest is not in the 
slaying, but in slain. Dr. Gasquet, speaking of 
the ravages of the Black Death, says, “ There was 
no time for Christian burial. The corpse was 
hurried to the nearest church, where it was con- 
signed to the tomb without the least attempt at 
ceremony.” 

Consecrated ground was quickly filled to over- 
flowing, and it became necessary to dig trenches 
into which the bodies were placed in hundreds, 
layer upon layer, with but a little earth sprinkled 
in between till the pit was full to the top. Where 
the Charter House now stands in London more 


PLAGUE 185 


than fifty thousand corpses are said to have been 
buried. The same wholesale interments were 
found all that it was possible to give in other 
countries also. 

“ Help us!” they cry in Pisa, “ to bear the body 
to the pit so that we in our turn may deserve to 
find someone to carry us.” 

Di Tura at Sienna, a contemporary chronicler, 
writes: “ And I, Agniolo di Tura, carried with my 
own hands my five little sons to the pit, and what 
I did many others did likewise.” So great was 
the labour of burying the dead, little wonder that 
fear seized the stoutest hearts, and the people 
dreading infection ran into the houses as the 
corpses were carried past. No outside help could 
be had for love or money. 

The “passing bell” tolled continuously that 
the clerk and the sexton might gain their fees, 
rather than to urge the living to pray for the 
dead, and perhaps they might be excused, with 
food at famine prices and all sources of supply 
cut off.’ 

As the churchyards were filled new cemeteries 
were hastily consecrated. In all this stress of 
circumstances it should be noted that no thought 
was given to the cremation of bodies; surely proof 
enough that the practice was repugnant to the 
people, who even in such circumstances as these 
refused to adopt the pagan practice as_ being 
against the usage of the Christian Church. 

The historian Stowe gives the following 
picture of London in these dark times. 

“The pestilence increased so sore that from 
want of room in churchyards to bury the dead of 
the city and suburbs, one John Corey, clerk, 
purchased of Nicholas Prior of The Holy Trinity, 


1 Dr. Gasquet, ‘‘ The Black Death.’’ 


186 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Aldgage, one ‘loft’ of ground near unto East 
Smithfield for the burial of those that died, with 
condition that it might be called the ‘Churchyard 
of The Holy Trinity,’ which ground he caused 
by the aid of divers devout citizens to be enclosed 
by a wall of stone. Robert Elsing, son of William 
Elsing, gave £5 thereunto, and the same was 
dedicated by Ralph Stratford, Bishop of London, 
where innumerable bodies of the dead were after- 
wards buried, and a chapel built in the same place 
to the honour of God.” | 

From the same source we gather that the said 
Bishop of London “bought a piece of land called 
‘No-man’s-land,’ which be enclosed by a wall of 
brick and dedicated to the burial of the dead, 
building thereon a proper chapel which is now 
(1598) enlarged and made a dwelling-house, and 
the burying plot is become a fair garden retaining 
the old name of Pardon Churchyard.” 

After this, in the year 1349, Walter Manner- 
ing, “in respect of a plague and infection, pur- 
chased thirteen acres and a rood of adjoining the 
said ‘ No-man’s-land,’ and lying in a place called 
‘Spittle Croft’ because it belonged to St. 
Bartholomew’s Hospital.” “ Since then,” he con- 
tinued, “in this plot of ground (also consecrated 
by the Bishop of London) there were (in that year) 
more than fifty thousand persons buried, as I have 
read in the Charters of Edward III.” 

It will be noted that the good bishop at least 
played Azs part in the great drama; and how careful 
he was even in such difficult times to see the 
cemeteries enclosed with “ walls of brick or stone” 
(no light matter), and duly consecrated in accord- 
ance with Christian custom. 

Little attempt seems to have been made to stay 
the course of the Black Death, and it may well 


PLAGUE 187 


be supposed that to bury its victims was as much 
as could be coped with, but Collier mentions the 
following curious incident. 

“A set of enthusiasts called Flagellants came 
from Hungary and passed through the country, 
lashing themselves till the blood ran down their 
shoulders that the plague might be stayed.” As to 
what effect this self-imposed penance had he 
leaves us uninstructed.* 

Between the visitation of the Black Plague in 
the fourteenth century, and the “ Great Plague” of 
the seventeenth century, a “sweating sickness” 
ravished England in the year 1551. It was 
peculiar inasmuch as it seemed to select its 
victims exclusively from the natives of these 
Isles. . 

Froude, writing of that visitation, remarks: 
“If it broke out in a foreign town it picked out 
the English residents with undeviating accuracy. 
The sufferers were generally men between thirty 
and forty years of age, and the stouter and healthier 
they were the more readily they caught the 
infection. 

“The symptoms were a sudden perspiration 
accompanied by faintness and drowsiness. Those 
who were taken with full stomachs died immediately, 
and those who caught cold ‘shivered into dis- 
solution in a few hours.’ 

“ The disease produced on the victim an intense 
desire to sleep, which, if yielded to, quickly proved 
fatal. So rapid was the disorder that of seven 
householders who supped together in the City of 
London, six before morning were corpses.” 

The cure advocated for this strange malady 
seems rather at variance with the necessity of 
keeping awake. The sufferer was advised “to 


1 Collier’s ‘‘ British Empire.”’ 


188 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


keep close in a moderate air,” and to drink “ posset 
ale and such-like ” for ¢hivty hours, when the patient 
was supposed to be out of danger.* 

“It was a terrible time,” says Stowe; “men 
lost their friends by the sweat.” In London alone, 
eight hundred men died in one week in July. 

In the seventeenth century no less than four 
plagues swept over the country. When we realize 
the comparatively spare population compared with 
our own times, the following death toll is simply 
appalling : 


1603... 30,578 
LO 25 Maer a seks 7 
TOO tah er LO en 
TG05 7 BOO. 400 


or a total sacrifice of 144,991 lives. 

As these figures will show, the mortality of the 
“Great Plague,” as it was called, far exceeded 
them all. 

The authorities seem to have learned little 
from these repeated experiences. 

By a remarkable dispensation of Providence, a 
year later, the fire of London burnt out the foulness 
which had so long accumulated. Every sort of 
filthiness had soaked into the very foundations of 
the houses, which, together with the churchyards 
into which bodies had been hastily packed away 
in thousands, were cleansed and purified by the 
intensity of the heat. That goods placed for safe 
storage by the merchants in the crypts of the 
churches should have been destroyed indicates the 
thorough way in which the great conflagration did 
its work. 

At the first alarm of the plague the rich 
merchants of London fled to the country districts 


1 James Anthony Froude, ‘‘ The Reign of Edward VI.”’ 


PLAGUE 189 


to avoid infection, leaving their poorer brethren 
to face the coming storm. 

Some sort of organization seems to have 
existed with a view to stamping out the epidemic, 
for the city was divided into districts each with 
nurses, watchers and gravediggers. 

The women who tended the sick carried a red 
staff in their hands that those whom they met 
might avoid them. The infected houses were 
marked with a cross and a prayer—a cry to Heaven 
when nothing more could be expected of material 
assistance. The warning cry “bring out your 
dead” and the rumble of the “dead-carts” 
disturbed the stillness of the night, all too short 
for the collection of the bodies from the streets and 
houses. 

Besant also quotes the following regulations, 
drawn up by the City Fathers in their hopeless 
efforts to stay the ravages of the plague. 

“That burial of the dead by this visitation be 
at most convenient hours always, either before 
sunrise or before sunsetting, with the privity of 
the churchwardens or constable, and not otherwise, 
and that no neighbours or friends be suffered to 
accompany the corpse to church, or to enter the 
house visited, upon pain of having his house shut 
up or be imprisoned, and that no corpse dying of 
infection shall be buried, or remain in any church in 
time of common prayer, sermon, or lecture; and 
that no children be suffered at time of burial of any 
corpse in any church, churchyard, or burying place, 
to come near the corpse, coffin or grave, and that all 
the graves be at least six feet deep; and further, all 
public assemblies at other burials are to be forborne 
during the continuance of the visitation.” The 
regulations further enjoined that the houses which 
the plague had visited were to be marked with a 


190 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


red cross on the middle of the door one foot in 
length, and the words “ Lord have mercy on us” 
to be also inscribed.’ 


‘“ Yes, when the crosses were chalked on the door, 
(Yes, when the terrible ‘ death-cart ’ rolled), 
Excellent courage our Fathers bore, 
Excellent hearts had our Fathers of old.’’ ? 


In view of the regulation that none might follow 
to the grave, the corpse was hurried out of the house 
at night, wrapped in any sort of an improvised 
shroud, to be committed to the pits, with, or more 
likely without, a muttered prayer from the labourer 
already accustomed to the sickening sight of whole- 
sale slaughter. 

Liberal libations of beer and tobacco and good 
pay were the only consolations of a sorely tried 
official, who, from force of circumstances, or some 
sense of duty, was pressed into this service. 

Whatever the efforts made it was certainly not 
science that finally overcame a national calamity 
which, nurtured in a hot-bed of filth, would, once it 
had started, have sorely taxed our most earnest 
efforts to-day. 

All that we have to remind us of this last of a 
series of plagues is the old burial grounds, over 
the entrance to which may be seen the sculptured 
representation of skull and cross-bones distinguish- 
ing the sites of the plague cemeteries. 

In the Brompton Road, once far removed from 
habitation, a row of empty houses stood for many 
years, which none would occupy. ‘They were built 
on the spot where many thousands of victims of 
the plague lay buried. 


1 Sir Walter Besant, ‘‘ London in the Time of the Stuarts.’’ 
2 Rudyard Kipling, ‘‘ Our Fathers of Old.’’ 


CHAR EER Axl 
STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 


A pEAD lion may be a more impressive sight than 
a dead mouse, yet with the hand of death heavy 
upon them there is little to be said for any 
difference between the two, and even less when 
Nature has finished her task. As to the value of 
popular esteem and hero-worship even our own 
history shows us countries stifling their yawns at 
the death-bed of kings when the inevitable moment 
of dissolution seemed unreasonably delayed, and 
thinking only of their chances of ingratiating them- 
selves in the favour of the successor to the throne. 
Deserted, save by such, and perhaps a few staunch 
and simple souls, the last moments of many a 
monarch has little enough to recommend it. 

Few sovereigns have received a larger measure 
of popular devotion than Queen Elizabeth, yet the 
closing scene of her life was sad enough. 

Of all our kings and queens the death of 
William the Conqueror was perhaps the most 
dramatic. Feared rather than honoured the fierce 
old king died in Rouen. Long before the body 
was cold his followers deserted him, leaving his 
corpse to the care of his servants, who, after 
stealing everything that was of value from his 
person and from the house where he lay, followed 
the example of their betters. Alone and dis- 


IQI 


192 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


honoured the clergy found him when they came to 
offer the last consolation of religion. ‘The body was 
taken by water to Caen in the charge of the monks 
of St. Benedict, and with them walked Anselm, 
the Abbot of Bec, who had risen from a _ bed 
of sickness in order to hear the last confession of 
the Conqueror—but too late. 

“In the midst of the solemn pomp there arose 
a cry of terror, flames burst from a house by which 
the procession was passing; it was unsafe to 
proceed as the whole quarter was threatened with 
destruction. Once more the body of the unloved 
Duke was deserted, only the monks followed it to 
the convent.” 

Even the actual burial at St. Etienne was 
attended by dramatic events. As the Bishop of 
Evreux ascended the pulpit to pronounce a funeral 
discourse, a rich burgher of Caen, who was present 
with a formidable body of sympathizers, demanded 
a hearing. “I forbid you to cover the body of the 
robber with my soil or to bury it in my heritage,” 
he shouted—the ground on which the chapel stood, 
having been wrested from him by force. The 
commotion that ensued may well be imagined; 
peace was only restored when the Bishop handed 
sixty sous as an instalment of his claim and promised 
that the remainder of the price he demanded for 
the rights of interment should be made good to 
him. This episode was surely dramatic enough, 
but the final scene was full of horror. “ The coffin 
was not large enough, or strong enough, and all 
the strength of incense smoke could not prevent 
the congregation from hurrying out of the church, 
leaving the terror-struck monks to finish the service 
as best they could, and then retire all trembling 
to their cells.” 

Many years later the Calvinistic mob broke 


STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 193 


into the tomb and took all the bones of the king. 
These, with the exception of the thigh-bone, were 
given to a monk, but were lost when the Abbey 
was a little later sacked. The thigh-bone, which 
passed into private hands, was brought back and is 
now all that remains of William the Conqueror.* 

A somewhat similar incident to that which 
scattered the mourners at the Conqueror’s funeral 
occurred at the burial of Mademoiselle de Mont- 
pensier (first cousin to Louis XIV). In accordance 
with an old custom the heart had been removed for 
separate burial. Owing to imperfect sealing of the 
casket containing the relic, which was placed on 
the credence table, it burst in the middle of the 
service with a loud report. ‘The intolerable odours 
sent priests and many eminent mourners flying 
from the church (of St. Denis). 

The Bourbons were buried in the vaults of 
St. Denis, and it was customary for their bodies to 
be opened and the more perishable parts removed 
and embalmed. 

Many instances are on record of this once 
common practice of burying the heart apart from 
the corpse. The tradition is still carried out by 
they Saxon royal family... Directly death is 
assured the body is opened and the heart and 
entrails removed. The heart is enclosed in a 
casket and placed on a white satin cushion on one 
side of the coffin, and the entrails in a white satin- 
covered jar on the other side. When the coffin is 
deposited in the vault these unpleasant objects 
repose on a bracket beside it.’ 

The heart as the legendary seat of the emotions 
has often been buried in some favoured spot to 


’ Percy Dearmer, ‘‘ Highways and Byways in Normandy.” 
_ 2 “ My Own Story,’’ Louisa of Tuscany (Ex-Crown Princess of 
Saxony). 
N 


194 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 

which it has been impossible to remove the body. 
The usage is also connected with the desire that 
premature burial would thus be avoided. 

In the year 1838 the heart of Richard I, “The 
Lion-hearted,” was discovered in Rouen, enclosed 
in a case of lead, in which it had been placed at his 
death in 1199. His body was buried at Fontevand. 

Other royal hearts were thus disposed of: that 
of Henry III in Normandy; Eleanor, Queen of 
Edward I, in.Lincoln; Louis: TX, X11] sands oGby 
in Paris. An interesting story is told of the heart 
of Robert Bruce, which he desired should be 
buried in the Church- of the Holy Sepulchre in 
Jerusalem. 

It was entrusted to Douglas, who carried it 
enclosed in a silver casket, which was suspended 
from his neck. On his journey he became involved 
in a fight with the Spaniards against the Moors, in 
which he was killed. ‘The treasure was recovered 
and brought to Scotland, where it found a resting- 
place in Melrose Abbey. 

Another “ wandering heart” was that of James, 
the Marquis of Montrose, who was executed in the 
year 1650. Enclosed in a steel box it was sent to 
the exiled Duke of Montrose. The casket was 
stolen on the journey and was eventually discovered 
in an obscure shop in Flanders. Later it was taken 
to India by one of the family, where it was stolen 
by a native; finally it reached Europe once more, 
only to disappear at the time of the French 
Revolution. 

The separate burial of the heart was forbidden 
by Pope Boniface VIII in 1294, but Benedict XI 
withdrew the prohibition. 

The practice was common from the twelfth to 
the eighteenth century. The heart of the poet 
Shelley, it will be remembered, was snatched from 


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‘AUNCIS AUNAH UIS 40 LUVAH AHL GANIVINOO AONO 


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STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 195 


the funeral pyre by his friend, Trelawney, and sent 
to England. 

An account of the funeral of Henry VII will 
give some idea of the scale of magnificence 
considered appropriate to royal obsequies during 
the Tudor period. 

The body of the King was brought from 
Richmond and was met at St. George’s Bar, 
Southwark, by the Mayor and Aldermen, 
accompanied by a body of commoners on horse- 
back, appropriately dressed in black. The streets 
were lined by members of the various “ companies ” 
carrying torches, the lower crafts occupying the 
ireomaces Alter) themeitreemen vol Stheay-City 
came the “Strangers,” FEasterlings, Frenchmen, 
Spaniards, Venetians, Genoese, Florentines and 
Lukeneres on horseback and on foot, also carrying 
torches. In Cornhill the lower crafts were so 
marshalled that the “ most worshipful crafts stood 
Me aio ouePauls.¢ 

On the day following the shrouded but 
uncofined body of the King was taken from 
St. Paul’s to Westminster. “The lowest craft ” 
was placed nearest to the Cathedral and the “ Most 
Worshipful ” next to Temple Bar, where the civic 
escort terminated. The Mayor and Aldermen 
proceeded to Westminster by water to attend 
“Masse and offering.” The Mayor with his mace 
in his hand made his offering next after the Lord 
Chamberlain, those Aldermen who had passed 
the chain offered next after Knights of the Garter.’ 
It must have been a well ordered and imposing 
spectacle at which the crafts were honoured, an 
element strangely lacking in these days when royal 
processions are for the most part confined to 
a military display. 

1 Sir Walter Besant, ‘‘ London in the Time of the Tudors.”’ 


196 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


The chapel of Henry VII, containing his 
beautiful tomb by the Florentine artist Torrigiano, 
also enshrines the body of his consort, Elizabeth of 
York. Here, too, we are reminded of a much less 
pompous ceremony. For reasons of state the body 
of Charles II, which lies in a vault beneath the 
chapel, was buried with only the barest formalities 
“and soon forgotten after all this vanity,” Evelyn 
tells’ us.*)...) Here, |, too;:; lies ) the’ oreat Dieu 
Marlborough, the magnificent pall which covered 
his remains—rightly the perquisite of the Dean of 
Westminster—being stolen after the funeral. 

The city guilds of craftsmen loved to honour 
their dead with imposing processions. 

Describing a civic funeral, Machyn says, “ First 
the company to which the deceased belonged 
appeared in their livery. The company of clerks 
attended the funeral of the better class and sang 
over the graves; black gowns were given to as 
many poor men and women as the condition of 
the deceased permitted.” When a great citizen 
died like Master Husee Squire and Gutt Marchand 
Vintorer, of Muskovia, and haberdasher, he 
was followed by a hundred mourners, he had five 
pennons of arms and a “cotte armur,’ and two 
heralds of arms, etc. 

“He was attended by the choir of St. Paul’s 
and by the company of clerks. He-was buried at 
St. Martin’s, Ludgate Hill, the church hung with 
black and with escutcheons of arms; the Reader of 
St. Paul’s preached both days.” ? | 

The funeral oration or “funeral” as it was at 
one time called—denoted the obsequies generally, 
but more particularly the sermon. 

Webster, in his dictionary, gives examples of 


1 Evelyn’s Diary. 
2 Sir Walter Besant, ‘‘ London in the Time of the Tudors.”’ 


STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 197 


the word used in both senses. “King James's 
‘funerals’ were performed very solemnly in the 
Collegiate Church at Westminster »—also “ Mr. 
Giles Lawrence preached his ‘ funerals.’ ” 

The ancient Greeks and Romans employed 
their finest orators for this purpose, the procession 
generally stopping on its way to the pyre in some 
important public place to listen to a lengthy 
panegyric on the virtues of the dead.’ 

In this country it was a common practice to 
leave by will a specified sum of money to defray 
the cost of a funeral sermon. In later days the 
“mortuary”—a charge levied on the estate of a 
deceased person by the Church—became associated 
with the post-mortem oration. 

Master Flammock, who died in 1560, was 
apparently a Puritan; many gowns were bestowed 
by his executors. He was taken to the church 
without singing or clerks, and was buried with a 
Psalm “After Genevay,” and a sermon. 

Master Hulson Scrivener was one of the 
masters in Bridewell, so the masters of Bridewell 
attended his funeral with green staves in their 
hands, and all their children, “‘ and there was great 
syngyng as ever was heard.” ” 

Such elaborate functions nearly always finished 
with a repast, “and all dune, to the place fir there 
was a great diner.” 

With much pomp and civic honours the City 
Fathers loved to bury their dead, especially the 
members of their own Guilds. The bearing of 
torches on these occasions reminds us that burial 
by night—a custom which added very considerably 
to the dramatic effect of the proceeding—was con- 

1 See as example ‘‘ Pericles Funeral Oration,’’ translated by 
Richard Crawley. ‘‘ Thucydidis Peloponnesian War,’’ published 


in the Temple Classics. 
2 Sir Walter Besant, ‘‘ London in the Time of the Tudors.’’ 


198 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


sidered as a special honour to persons of rank or 
distinction. Those of the Aldermen of London 
who had passed the chair were thus interred. The 
practice gradually fell into disuse, partly because 
of the opportunity it afforded for riotous behaviour 
on the part of the sightseers; it was prohibited in 
the time of Charles I. The prohibition was, how- 
ever, frequently disregarded, the tradition being 
retained by some families and in certain districts. 
The last English king to be buried by torchlight 
was George I. 

Something of the cost of great public funerals 
may be gathered from the following extract from 
Evelyn’s’ Diary (1695). He ‘says; ~ li) sawithe 
Queen (Mary) lie in state—the Marquis of 
Normanby told me King Charles had a design to 
buy all King Street and build it nobly, it being the 
street leading to Westminster.” “This,” he adds, 
“might have been done but for the expense of the 
Queen’s funeral, which was fifty thousand pounds— 
against her desire.” 

After the burial a paper was found expressing 
a wish that her body might not be opened, and 
that no expense might be incurred at her funeral. 

Macaulay gives a picturesque account of this 
funeral : 


“While the Queen’s remains lay in state at 
Whitehall the neighbouring streets were filled 
every day from sunrise to sunset by crowds, which 
made all traffic impossible; the two Houses with 
their Maces followed the hearse—the Lords robed 
in scarlet and ermine, the Commons in long black 
mantles. No preceding sovereign had ever been 
attended to the grave by a Parliament, for till then, 
the Parliament had always expired with the 
sovereign. The banners of England and France, 


STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 199 


Scotland and Ireland were carried by great nobles 
before the Courts. The pall was borne by the 
chiefs of the illustrious houses of Howard, Seymour, 
Grey and Stanley. On the gorgeous coffin of 
purple and gold were laid the crown and sceptre 
of the realm. The sky was dark and troubled, 
and a few ghostly flakes of snow fell on the black 
plumes of the funeral car. Within the Abbey, 
nave, transept and choir were ablaze with innumer- 
able wax lights. The body was deposited under 
a sumptuous canopy in the body of the church, 
while the Primate (Tenison) preached. Through 
the whole ceremony the distant booming of canon 
was heard every minute from the batteries of the 
Tower. It was rumoured at the time that a 
robin which had taken refuge from the cold in the 
same building was observed to perch incessantly, 
and, as it were, affectionately and sadly upon 
the Queen’s hearse, a touching incident greatly 
appreciated by the spectators.” 


As in the case of Queen Mary elaborate 
obsequies are often given in honour of a person 
who has previously expressed a desire to be buried 
in a simple and decent manner, and much of the 
vulgar ostentation of the modern survivals is for 
the aggrandizement of relatives rather than the 
honour of the departed. 

Such was the fate of the great Italian composer, 
Verdi, who gave the most strict and definite 
instructions to his friends that his body was to be 
laid to rest without any sort of public display 
whatever. Despite this, he was buried in Milan in 
IQOI, in an ornate marble tomb, and it was com- 
puted that no less than a hundred thousand people 
lined the streets to witness the procession. 

We can hardly conceive that the elaborate 


200 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


funeral ceremonies afforded to Oliver Cromwell 
were such as would have been desired by a man 
of such simple and unostentatious habits. 

Whilst his body was being embalmed his effigy 
was exhibited to the public, decked with royal 
robes, crown and regalia. His remains were after- 
wards removed from Somerset House on a state 
bed of velvet, drawn by six horses, the pall being 
borne by various noblemen. Knights and heralds, 
guards of honour, and a noble procession of 
notable persons accompanied him to Westminster 
Abbey. Evelyn describes the event as “the joy- 
fullest funeral I ever saw, for there were none 
that cried but dogs, which the soldiers hooted 
away with a barbarous noise, drinking and taking 
tobacco in the street as they went ’”—a description 
which, if it gives something in the way of local 
colour, is clearly prejudiced. 

The same chronicler, who never missed any 
public occasion of interest, particularly a funeral, 
in describing the obsequies of Ireton under date 
March 6th, 1652, writes: “Saw the magnificent 
funeral of that arch rebel Ireton carried in pomp 
from Somerset House to Westminster, with divers 
regiments of soldiers, horse and foot, then marched 
the mourners, General Cromwell (his father-in- 
law), his mock Parliament men, officers and forty- 
four men in gowns; three led horses in housings of 
black cloth, two led in black velvet and his 
charging horse all covered over with embroidery 
and gold on crimson velvet: then the Guidons, 
ensigns, four heralds carrying the arms of state (as 
they called it), namely the red cross, and Ireland 
with the casque wreath, sword and spurs, etc., next 
a chariot canopied of black velvet and six horses, 
in which was the corpse. The pall held up by 
mourners on foot, the mace and sword, with other 


STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 201 


marks of his charge in Ireland (where he died of the 
plague), carried before it in black scarves. 

“Thus in a grave pace—drum covered with 
cloth, soldiers reversing arms—they proceeded 
through the streets in a very solemn manner.” 

Attempts were made at various times to curtail 
by law extravagance at public funerals, but with 
very little result. 

In the year 1681 the Scottish Parliament 
restricted the number of persons who might attend 
the funeral of a person of rank to one hundred, 
prohibiting at the same time the using or carrying 
of branches, banners and other honours at church 
except “the eight branches to be upon the pall or 
upon the coffin where there is no pall.” The 
funeral sermon was also condemned. 

Despite this Act the funeral of Sir William 
Hamilton, who died in 1707, was so costly that it 
dissipated the sum equal to two years of his salary 
as a judge. 

Whilst, especially in modern times, it has been 
customary to accompany the funerals of kings and 
those of exalted rank with a display of military, 
rather than civic honours, this has been more 
reasonably done in the case of famous military 
leaders. The burial of Napoleon occurs at once 
as an example. The Warrior-Emperor died at 
St. Helena on May 5th, 1821. He had previously 
selected a beautiful spot on the island, where 
he desired that his body should be interred in the 
event of permission being refused to take it to 
France. Here, in the presence of a few faithful 
friends who had cheered his exile, and the military 
authorities on the island, his body was carried by 
British Grenadiers on May 8th. He was clothed in 
the dress he had worn during his many campaigns 
—his head covered by his historical three-cornered 


202 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


hat—volleys were fired over his grave, and a huge 
stone was afterwards placed to mark the deserted 
spot where the remains of the great soldier lay. 

It was not till the year 1840 that the British 
administration restored the relics of Napoleon to 
the French. Before being placed in the frigate 
Belle Poule, the coffin was opened, when it was 
found that the body was not decayed and the 
features were still recognizable. All that remained 
of the great Napoleon was thus conveyed to the 
scene of his former triumphs, to be interred in the 
company of other illustrious warriors in the church 
of the Invalides. Though it was winter time, and 
bitterly cold (December 15th, 1840), some six 
hundred thousand persons assembled in the streets 
of Paris to do honour to Napoleon. Louis Philippe 
was present at the service, which was the occasion 
of much pomp and magnificence; a touching tribute 
to the memory of a great leader, and one which was 
not witnessed without the deepest emotion, was the 
appearance of a guard of honour composed of war- 
scarred veterans, who had fought by his side in 
many a famous battle. Napoleon’s favourite 
charger also followed the body to its final resting- 
place. 

The funeral of Wellington was hardly less 
magnificent than that of the vanquished Emperor. 
It took place on November 18th, 1852. The body 
was interred by the side of Nelson in St. Paul’s 
Cathedral. 

During the procession the streets presented a 
remarkable sight; enormous crowds were assembled 
many hours before the ceremony, and every possible 
point of vantage had been occupied where even a 
distant glimpse of the cortege might be expected. 
Both rich and poor were dressed in deep mourn- 
ing. Whatever the popular feeling might have 


om Dey ge. 
GRILLE Of tht! TE 


Hele ‘fd, LEI GYD Sah C (es Yi; Ce Whe G 


\ ABP dedeol 
Nifeh 


Coes Ga bal: 





INVITATION TO THE FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AT ST. PAUL’S 
CATHEDRAL, 





LORD NELSON’S FUNERAL CAR. 
This pageant-car was designed on the lines of his historic ship, the Victory. 





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STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 203 


been at some periods of the life of Wellington, 
there can be no doubt that at his death a generous 
and heartfelt sorrow was displayed. With great 
military ceremony, arms reversed and drums 
muffled, the enormous structure on which the body 
was carried rumbled through the streets to the 
sound of the “ Dead March.” 

This funeral car is interesting as it resembled 
the later examples of the hearse proper. Mounted 
on a substantial wagon, the enormous superstruc- 
ture, decorated with banners and weapons, bore an 
altar-like erection covered by a magnificent velvet 
pall. On the top rested the coffin, on which the 
Duke’s celebrated “ cheese-cutter ” hat reposed with 
the other insignia of his rank. Over the whole 
car a canopy was erected, supported by four orna- 
mented poles. A large team of horses was required 
to drag the heavy structure, all of which wore 
nodding plumes on their heads whilst velvet saddle- 
cloths covered their flanks in the orthodox manner. 

Large bodies of troops representing all the 
picked regiments in the British army lined the 
route or followed in the procession. 

Not only in this country, but abroad, on the 
day of his funeral honour was accorded to the 
“Saviour of Europe,” as Wellington was called. 

In Austria a grand parade of the whole army 
was ordered, at which the Emperor was present in 
person to direct the salute of artillery. 

In all the ceremonies which accompany the 
soldier to his grave, whether he be a general of 
renown or a trooper of humble rank, we see much 
the same forms resorted to, which we shall find 
presuppose that he has been slain and is to be 
buried on the field of battle. 

Even in modern warfare, where conditions are 
so widely changed from the old order of things, 


204 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the earliest practices are still in vogue. The 
identity disc may take the place of the tattoo 
mark, but the purpose is the same. 

The art of tattooing—if it be art—was used, if 
not originated, for the purpose of identification of 
the dead and the wounded on the battlefield. By 
this means did Edith the Swan Neck discover the 
body of Harold on the field of Hastings. 

William of Malmesbury (1066) says, “ The 
English adorned themselves with punctured 
designs.” Kingsley says, “May not our sailors 
and soldiers fashion of tattooing the arms and chest 
with strange devices be a remnant of the very 
fashion kept up if not originated by the desire that 
the corpse be recognized after death.” * 

The forms prescribed for the burial of soldiers 
are set down with military punctiliousness and 
regard for detail. The uniformity of the proceed- 
ings and such enforced simplicity as burial on the 
field of battle dictates, adds a dignity to all things 
based on essential principles which never fails 
to awaken the sympathetic interest of the observer. 

The regulations provide for different escorts 
according to the rank of the deceased, but other- 
wise the same honours are paid irrespective of 
degree. 

The “firing party” consists of a sergeant, 
corporal and twelve privates. To those selected 
as pall-bearers falls the duty of seeing that the flag 
which covers the body, and the headdress and 
accoutrements are tied on the coffin in such a 
manner as will prevent their falling off when the 
coffin is “shouldered.” The arms of the escort 
are reversed, that is to say, the muzzle of the rifle 
is directed to the rear under the soldier’s left arm, 


the right hand holding it in position behind his body. 


* Chas. Kingsley, ‘‘ Hereward the Wake ’’ (Preface). 


STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 205 


The coffin is placed on a gun-carriage prepared 
for the purpose (that used on the occasion of 
Queen Victoria’s funeral may be seen in the 
London Museum). The procession moves off at 
the slow march, followed by the riderless charger in 
appropriate circumstances, with his master’s boots 
reversed in the stirrups. The firing party leads 
the cortége, followed by the band and drummers. 
After the gun-carriage march the bearers in 
attendance, the mourners following. The band 
plays the “Dead March,” and when it ceases the 
pace is quickened till the burial ground is within 
sight, when the slow march is resorted to again. 
At the entrance to the cemetery the firing party 
leading, halt and open out, in order that the 
procession may pass between them as they stand 
with heads bent and arms reversed. The coffin 
is then lifted from the gun-carriage by the bearers 
and carried feet foremost to the grave, where the 
firing party follow, remaining with covered heads. 
The ceremony is concluded by the firing of 
three volleys, and the sounding of the bugle call 
known as the “Last Post.” A lively march is 
played by the band on the way home. 

Such a scene as this is a common enough 
incident in any garrison town, but it never becomes 
commonplace, for it has history behind it. 

The use of the gun-carriage as an improvised 
hearse has an obvious origin in the time of war. 

The reversed arms were once a recognized 
signal to the enemy that a truce was called whilst the 
dead were buried. The three volleys fired over the 
grave announce that the ceremony is over, and that 
the burial party is prepared to accept battle again. 

The wailing notes of the “ Last Post” is the 
sound that nightly lulls the camp to rest. 

The use of the flag as a pall is an obvious 


206 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


makeshift in circumstances where coffins are 
unobtainable. 

As we have noted in a previous chapter, the 
custom of leading the warrior’s horse to the grave 
is a remnant of the days when it was considered 
necessary to slaughter the animal there in order 
that its master might have a charger in the spirit 
world to carry him to fresh fields of victory. 

The hoisting of a flag half-mast high, though 
a common usage, is essentially of military origin. 
It typifies the victory of death over life, the 
_victor’s flag being at one time flown over the flag of 
the vanquished, which was lowered for this purpose. 

Of naval funerals there is little to tell. When 
they take place on land, they follow the military 
custom—at sea, the uncofhned body is commonly 
sewn in a hammock or in sailcloth, to which shot or 
a weight is attached, in order that it may sink in 
the deep waters to which it is committed. 

We cannot claim to have dealt even briefly with 
the subject of public funerals without making 
some mention of the burial of the murderer or his 
victims. Morbid curiosity and an inherent and 
ghoulish love of tragedy renders such occasions dear 
to vulgar minds. Thousands will gaze with intense 
interest at the shabby ending to a squalid drama. 

In comparatively modern times, when the public 
execution of criminals took place outside Newgate 
Prison, long hours before the condemned man was 
brought out in the chill morning air to be hanged, 
dense crowds of the lowest elements of society 
swarmed in thousands from the slums of the city 
to gloat over the horrid sight which the execution 
afforded. 

Even in these enlightened days, when an 
execution takes place a crowd assembles outside 
the prison walls in order to enjoy—we can use no 


STATE AND PUBLIC FUNERALS 207 


other word—the sound of the tolling bell, and to 
see the black flag hoisted. 

The prison officials who receive the unhappy 
victim of passion and take his life, are also 
responsible for the disposal of his body. 

With a haunting suggestiveness Wilde tells 
the sordid story in the “ Ballade of Reading Gaol.” 

‘“ Only a stretch of mud and sand 
By hideous prison wall, 
And a little heap of burning lime, 
That the man should have a pall.”’ 

Whilst at the present time there undoubtedly 
exists a growing strength of public opinion against 
the death-penalty, the cause of the murderer often 
on the slightest pretext has very generally been 
supported. “Release unto us Barabbas” 1s a cry 
not confined by any means to the ancient Jews. 

A remarkable case of this kind occurred in the 
year 1815. 

A girl named Eliza Fenning was accused of 
attempting to poison the family with whom she was 
employed as a servant. Her innocence was 
supported by one of those curious waves of 
intense popular feeling which arise in some such 
cases. Amongst the advocates of her cause were 
numbered many celebrated people of the day. 
The girl’s character—if one may judge it from the 
evidence given at the trial—was anything but 
blameless. 

Despite numerous petitions and the serious 
reconsideration of the facts at the last moment by 
the Lord Chancellor and other officials, she paid 
the full penalty of the crime which she was said to 
have committed. A public funeral was accorded 
to her, the body being handed over to her relatives 
for the purpose. ‘The streets through which the 
procession passed were thronged with sightseers 


208 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the whole day. A strong body of guards was on 
duty to keep the peace. The pall was borne 
by girls dressed in white, as a symbol of her 
innocence, the relatives walking behind the hearse. 
Difficulty was experienced in forcing a way for the 
procession to the cemetery through the dense 
crowds of people. 

It is remarkable that the name of this woman 
of very humble origin appears, with detailed 
particulars of the event, in the Dictionary of 
National Biography. 

Reference has been made to the custom of 
burying murderers at the cross-roads. Many 
curious beliefs have been held in this relation. 
Jewish law forbade the cutting down of a body 
which had been hanged, for at least a day after 
the execution, in order that the ground might not 
be rendered “ unclean.” 

Hanging in this country was only substituted 
for burning alive as late as the year 1790. 

At Portsmouth in 1784, Mary Bayley, who 
murdered her husband, was drawn to the place of 
execution on a hurdle and was then burnt alive. 

If special precautions were considered necessary 
in order that the spirit of the dead might not 
annoy the living, certainly the dread of the ghost 
of a murderer or his victim presented special 
horrors to the superstitious mind. 

For this reason, a stake was driven through the 
heart of the criminal, and other means adopted to 
prevent unpleasant reappearances. 

Webb records the fact that during the Arran 
murder case in 1889, it transpired that the boots 
of the murdered man had been removed by the 
local constable, who according to tradition buried 
them on the sea-shore “between high and low 
water level” to prevent this ghost from walking. 


CHAR PE Re 2Old 
CREMATION, EMBALMING 


WHATEVER may be said for or against cremation as 
a method of disposing of the bodies of the dead, 
frequent controversy on the subject in recent years 
has been the means of inducing people to give some 
thought to the whole matter of funeral reform. 

Under a protecting cloud of sanctity, our funeral 
observances have been handed down unquestioned 
from generation to generation till the introduction of 
scientific cremation opened up a healthy discussion 
and forced the average mind to consider such things 
from the point of view of essentials. 

We cannot give even a few moments of serious 
thought to cremation as opposed to earth-burial 
without being forced to define our veal beliefs con- 
cerning an existence after death. Even orthodox 
minds may be surprised to discover how little 
assurance they have, when faced with the possibilities 
of a conscious sacrifice of their bodies to the flames. 

Those who have but a tolerant smile for the 
orthodox beliefs in a spiritual existence are apt to 
hesitate when they contemplate the destruction of 
their physical bodies by a process of incineration, 
however scientifically it may be carried out. 

“Why run any risks in so serious an experi- 
ment?” we may ask ourselves, when the grave, 
despite its obvious drawbacks, seems to offer, by 
contrast, some comparatively definite attractions. 

209 O 


210 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


In vain will the advocates of cremation argue the 
larger question of the welfare of the public health 
with those who have the smallest lingering doubts. 
A natural horror of fire is the first obstacle to be 
overcome if cremation is to become a general 
practice. Even “advanced” people dwelling in a 
certain garden suburb near London have been seen 
to cast uneasy glances at the tall chimney of the 
“grill room” as the crematorium is playfully 
called, which has been erected so conveniently at 
the entrance to their sylvan retreat. 

The controversy between the advocates of the 
two methods of disposal is an old one. 

At the death-bed of Gurca-Nanak, the founder 
of the Sikh’s religion, the question arose as to 
whether his body should be buried—as was the 
custom of the Mussulmans—or cremated according 
to the practice of the Hindus. 

Knowing their minds, Nanak ordered that 
flowers should be placed by the Hindus on the 
tight of his body, and by their adversaries on the 
left. He promised that those offerings which 
remained fresh in the morning should have the 
disposal of his remains. After death had taken 
place the body was covered by a sheet. In the 
morning, when this was removed, xothing was 
found beneath it but the flowers, all of which were 
as fresh as when they were gathered.* It is a 
beautiful story, but it leaves matters pretty much 
where they are to-day. 

Looking backwards over the ages we find the 
method of the disposal of the dead in the following 
order: 

1. Burial. 

2. A period of both burial and cremation or 

a partial burning of the body. 
1 Dorothy Field, ‘‘ The Religion of the Sikhs.”’ 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 211 


3. Cremation gradually becoming obsolete, and 

earth burial the general practice.’ 

The Greeks and Romans originally buried 
their dead, but later cremation became customary. 

Incineration was the general practice of the 
ancient world, with the exception of Egypt, which 
embalmed. Judea, which learnt its embalming 
and other practices from the Egyptians, buried in 
the sepulchre, and China in the earth (in accordance 
with the doctrine of Feng-Shin). 

The Romans had so great a respect for all 
burial-places that the Christians were allowed to 
inter their dead undisturbed, whilst otherwise 
persecuted. 

The Greeks continued both methods with a 
decided bias towards cremation. What was the 
reason underlying these preferences? 

Clodd tells us “ the well-nigh common practice 
of burning the dead in the Bronze Age was probably 
resorted to, as a yet more effective way of getting rid 
of the ghost than by the burial of the body.” ” 

Once again we shall note the primitive dread 
of being haunted, which plays so large a part in all 
our funeral customs. 

Even the placing of weights on the body, and 
the construction of a ring-fence round it seems to 
have been considered as less efficacious, for to burn 
was to annihilate. Clodd adds “that it would be 
specially adopted by nomadic peoples, who, leaving 
their dead behind, would be unable to make 
provision for appeasing offerings at their graves. 
Hence the burning of the body to prevent the 
neglected ghost from following and harassing the 
living.” 

With the growth of Christianity cremation, which 


‘ Walter Johnson, ‘‘ Byways in British Archzology.’’ 
Ed. Clodd, ‘‘ The Story of Primitive Man.’’ 


212 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


was generally practised, received a check, for, from 
the earliest times, the Christian Church put all the 
weight of her increasing influence against cremation 
and strictly forbade it to her converts; nor has she 
ever altered her attitude towards this form of 
disposal. 

“The Christians execrated funeral pyres and 
condemned the sepultures of flames,’ Minucius 
Felix wrote in the third century, a statement which 
he thus qualified, “ Nor do we fear, as you may 
suppose, any harm from this mode of sepulture, 
but we adhere to the old and better custom.” * 

In considering cremation we must distinguish 
between the funeral pyre of the ancients and of 
primitive peoples, and the modern methods of 
scientific incineration. 

The earliest pyre was merely a heap of wood 
upon which the body was placed, and in most cases 
only half destroyed, for it is no easy matter to 
reduce to ashes a body containing a large 
percentage of fluid matter. This  altar-like 
erection must have been very nearly related to 
the pagan sacrifice of human and animal offerings 
to the gods, and may have had something to do 
with the Christian attitude. 

Pine or other resinous wood was selected, and 
some light combustible materials added such as 
dried grass and twigs, in order to set the pyre 
alight. Oak and hard woods generally, that resist 
the flames, take twice as long in producing the 
same results. With these materials oil, pitch, etc., 
were in later use, adding much to the heat and 
effectiveness of the flames. 

Christianity found the Romans building their 
pyres of pine logs constructed altar-wise. The 
interstices were stuffed with pitch and brushwood 


1 Minucius Felix, ‘‘ Dialogues Octavius.’’ 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 213 


to which sweet-smelling gums were added, the 
structure being decorated with the symbolic 
branches of cypress. When all was prepared the 
uncoffined body was placed in position, and the 
chief mourner, with head averted, set fire to the 
pyre with a torch. When the whole was reduced 
to ashes, wine was poured on the embers to cool 
them. The bones were then reverently collected, 
washed with milk and placed with perfume in 
a cinerary urn.’ 

The poor who were unable to do things on such 
a lavish scale had to rest contented with cheaper 
and less effective methods; as an alternative they 
could bury their dead in the catacombs, or cast 
them with the slaves into a common pit. 

These cruder forms of destroying the body by 
fire are still to be met with in certain parts of the 
world. 

In Siam the ceremony of cremating a king is, 
or was, conducted with an elaborate ritual. 

The body was placed in a sitting posture in a 
special form of chair, beneath which reposed a 
golden vessel. A quantity of mercury having been 
poured down the throat to dry up the body, a 
golden mask was put over the face of the dead ruler. 
A grand procession of state visited the body each 
day and ceremoniously emptied the fluid from the 
jar into the river. When the body was sufficiently 
dried it was placed in a large urn, where it remained 
for about a year. Meanwhile preparations were 
made for the final ceremony. 

Logs of the finest sandal wood were collected 
in the forests to form a catafalque some three 
hundred feet in height, to which the body was 
presently brought by a procession of great 


4 a G. Tucker, ‘‘ Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. 
a ei 


214 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


magnificence to be deposited on the summit of 
the pyre. For seven days public games took place 
in honour of the occasion, as the Romans honoured 
their dead by gladiator shows. 

The final act was the ceremonial lighting of the 
pyre by the heir to the throne. After the flames 
had done their work the ashes were collected, 
mixed with clay and distributed as souvenirs 
amongst the people. 

In the times of plague or war cremation has 
sometimes been excused by those who were 
otherwise opposed to the practice. 

We have a curious instance of its use as a 
precautionary measure in the romantic circum- 
stances attending the cremation of the body of the 
poet Shelley. 

Many of those to whom the picture depicting 
the event is familiar (the original hangs in the 
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) might suppose that 
the method of disposal was chosen in this instance 
by the poet as a dramatic ending to a romantic 
career; or it might be thought that Byron, who was 
present, was responsible for the unusual arrange- 
ments. The facts are worth recalling. Shelley 
and his friend Williams were travelling in Italy 
when they were both drowned. A good deal of 
mystery surrounded the accident, it having been 
suggested that their boat was purposely capsized. 
The bodies were not recovered for some ten days 
after the catastrophe, when they were washed up 
in different parts of the shore at Via Reggio. 
Here they were temporarily buried in the sand whilst 
the authorities made the necessary arrangements 
for their cremation. 

The fact is that there was no option in the 
matter, for, according to Italian law, anything 
washed up from the sea must be burnt on the 





ROMAN FUNERAL PYRE.—Livy. 


The illustration depicts the traditional “‘ gladiator show,’ the lighting 
of the pyre with face averted, and the use of the toga as a veil indicating 
the heir or chief; mourner. 





PLAQUE REPRESENTING AN EARLY FORM OF HORSE-DRAWN BIER. 





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CREMATION, EMBALMING 215 


shore where it is found. This is an old 
precautionary measure against the introduction of 
plague into a sea-girt country which has suffered 
so often from such visitations. A military guard 
was at once dispatched to the spot in order to see 
that the regulations in force were strictly adhered 
to. The soldiers collected driftwood from the 
beach and pine logs from an adjacent forest for 
the funeral pyre, and a grid of iron was provided in 
order to secure a proper combustion on which the 
wood was piled. These arrangements were carried 
out under the personal supervision of an officer 
from the Office of Health. The body of Williams 
was cremated first, and that of Shelley on the 
following day. Frankincense, salt, wine and oil 
were thrown on to the burning pyre, and in a few 
hours all that remained of the poet’s body—except 
the heart, which was recovered from the flames— 
was gathered up to be interred in the Protestant 
cemetery of Rome, where Keats had been buried. 

Leigh Hunt witnessed the proceedings with 
much emotion from Byron’s carriage, whilst Byron, 
unable to bear the sickening odours, left before 
the body was consumed. “ Don’t repeat this with 
me,” he said. “ Let my carcase rot where it falls.” 

It is safe to say that if no better methods of 
incineration had been devised than those which 
have been described nothing would have been 
heard of the modern revival. 

Before we follow the introduction and growth 
of scientific cremation let us see what inducement 
it offered as compared to burial. 

In the year 1658 Sir Thomas Browne published 
a quaint book entitled “ Hydriutaphia or Non- 
Burial,” but it was Sir Henry Thompson who first 
seriously brought the matter to public notice in 
this country. | 


216 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


If we would discover in what spirit he 
approached the subject we cannot do better than 
examine the actual terms of the problem he had set 
himself to solve. 

“ Given a dead body to resolve it into carbonic 
acid, water and ammonia, rapidly, safely and not 
unpleasantly.” 

We may be amused to find the scientific mind 
throwing in as a last clause or sop to suit more 
delicate stomachs, “that the process should not be 
‘unpleasant. ” 

The early advocate of the scientific system 
drew the most encouraging pictures of the 
commercial value of their proposals. The actual 
number of tons of bone imported into this country 
for the purposes of manufacture and manure was 
most carefully computed, and the benefit to the 
community in pounds, shillings and pence to be 
derived from human remains, formed what they 
supposed would be one of their most convincing 
arguments. Yet another proposition which was 
seriously set forth in favour of cremation was the 
possibility of producing gas for lighting purposes 
by means of a retort or kind of “ mortuary 
gasometer.” 

As a French writer observed, “If you want to 
prevent cremation in France—a country which has 
a deep veneration for her dead—you cannot do 
better than spread abroad such arguments as these.” 

But, after all, it is a point of view. If we are 
quite satisfied that a corpse is simply so much fat, 
so much water, ammonia, lime and so forth, and 
nothing else, what possible harm can there be 
in separating such parts from the whole as would 
be usefully employed for manufacture or agricultural 
purposes? 

Many eminent scientists as well as others have 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 217 


bequeathed their remains to science. Jeremy 
Bentham, the famous philosopher, left his body to 
the University College Hospital, where it was 
preserved, fully dressed, and may be seen by the 
curious. Sir Victor Horsley bequeathed his skull 
and brain to the Neurological Society of London, 
but his untimely death in Mesopotamia prevented 
the fulfilment of the promise. 

We have read of the methods alleged to have 
been adopted by the Germans in their “ Kadavar 
Utilization Establishment,” a commercial enter- 
prise, about which full and gruesome stories were 
related. We were told that the corpses from the 
battlefields, neatly tied up in bundles, find their 
way to this establishment. Here they are passed 
on by a system of endless chains from one process 
to another, leaving behind them all sorts of valuable 
by-products, particularly those of which a shortage 
existed in the enemy countries. But why not? 
Whence the horror which was expressed, be the 
famtsey true or / otherwise Here! we havelra 
materialistically minded nation putting into 
practice in times of stress, those principles 
advocated by the pioneers of cremation in times 
of peace, namely the use of the bodies of the dead 
for utilitarian purposes. 

The position is surely logical if we believe that 
a corpse is so much decaying flesh—and nothing 
more. 

About the time that the advocates of cremation 
started their propaganda, science was in the main 
not only opposed to the spiritual aspects of death, 
but was considered by many as the appointed 
means by which a purely materialistic conception 
would be brought about. As we know, the 
unexpected happened, and some of our leading 
scientists to-day are not only taking us in the 


218 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


opposite direction, but leading us both farther and 
faster than many of us are inclined to be led. Let 
us remember that the utilization of human remains 
was not the oxy claim put forward in favour of 
the funeral reforms advocated. For instance, 
the pioneers insisted that the compulsory cremation 
of all persons dying of infectious diseases would 
do very much towards stamping out certain 
epidemics. 

They further claimed that by doing away with 
the burial grounds, not only would the public 
health be safeguarded but that a vast acreage of 
land, instead of lying idle, could be put under 
cultivation and a considerable revenue gained 
thereby. These ideas were the main arguments 
put forward by the cremationists. 

To many minds, they went a long way in 
establishing a reasonable case against earth burial. 
Leaving aside as a separate question the use of 
the bodies of the dead for utilitarian purposes (a 
doctrine which is certainly repugnant to a vast 
majority of people) we have two main claims to 
consider; first, the utilization of land which would 
otherwise be conserved as burial grounds for an 
indefinite period, with the consequent loss of 
revenue; and secondly, that cremation is a cleaner 
and a more expeditious method, and as such, a 
necessity in the interests of the public health. 

It is the latter which appeals to the majority 
of those who prefer incineration to the thought of 
bodies rotting in a grave. 

Before dealing with what we may term the 
“spiritual ” side of the matter, let us see what reply 
the defenders of earth burial give to the challenge 
of the cremationists, “ that the interment of bodies 
in the earth is necessarily dangerous to the living.” 

Dr. Brouardel, the eminent French authority, 


CREMATION, EMBALMING ~ 219 


who had spent the greater part of his life in the 
study of various aspects of death, gives the 
following, based on the result of exhaustive 
experiments: “I believe that when coffins are 
placed from five to six and a half feet deep, and 
covered with earth, the hydrogen and hydrocarbons 
which are given off during decomposition are 
absorbed by the thickness of the earth,” * a result 
which is consistent with general experience. 

As a reply to the argument that a large and 
valuable area of ground is locked up and rendered 
profitless by its use as cemeteries and_ burial 
grounds, the critic Amédéé Latour said, that “ had 
cremation been the accepted form of disposal since 
the time of Socrates, humanity would have died 
out long since, as a result of cold brought about 
by the destruction of all the available combustible 
materials.” 

To this, Marini, the exponent of cremation, 
objects that whilst it might have been so had the 
old funeral pyre been used, modern methods render 
anything of the kind impossible. 

Even from the strictly utilitarian point of view, 
there are very reasonable objections to be raised 
against the practice of cremation, when we consider 
how much of our knowledge of the past is derived 
from what we have discovered in the graves of 
the ancients—how great would have been our loss 
had the funeral fires swept everything before them, 
leaving us at the most a few urns full of 
unprofitable ashes. 

But a still stronger argument against cremation 
is the very great incentive it affords to crime. 

Sir Henry Thompson realized this, and he 
suggested an expedient as a means of overcoming 
the difficulty which is hardly convincing. 


Dr. Brouardel and Benham, ‘‘ Death and Sudden Death.’’ 


220 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Two carboys were to be supplied, one in which 
the stomach would be preserved, and a second to 
be provided for the intestines in case the interests 
of justice necessitated a post-mortem examination 
being made for poison. The suggestion is 
ridiculous, and in practice open to fraud. As to 
the sanitary side of the question—the less said 
about it the better, 

It was probably with a view to preventing crime 
that stringent laws were in force against cremation, 
till recently modified by the insistence of the 
pioneers of the modern movement. 

In France it was illegal till the year 1889, when 
it was allowed under certain restrictions. ‘The 
safeguard provided against foul play is absurd. 

TI'wo doctors have to view the corpse before 
incineration, and give a certificate of death to the 
authorities—a precaution which is ridiculed by 
Dr. Brouardel as hopelessly inadequate without 
an analysis which is not even suggested by French 
law, and certainly could not be insisted upon in 
general practice. 

The first serious experiments in modern 
cremation were carried out by Brunetti in Italy in 
the year 1869. The apparatus bearing his name 
was exhibited in Vienna in 1873, the process being 
conducted in the open. 

A later contrivance invented by Siemens was 
of the closed type. 

We shall not be surprised to find that Germany 
was early in the field, having erected an apparatus 
in Gotha in the year 1878. Between the years 
1887 and 1906 nearly every country in Europe 
had erected a crematorium. 

The French installed the Gorini furnaces, a 
municipal venture first used for the destruction of 
anatomical parts from the hospitals and later for 





(Reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum). 
AN EGYPTIAN COFFIN, COVER OF COFFIN OF PENSENSEN-HERU FROM THEBES, 
EXSNGV TRI YaN AS IY ee Com OO. 





(Reproduced by kind permission of the Cremation Society of England). 
A MODERN CREMATORIUM. 
VIEW OF THE COLUMBARIUM AT ST. JOHN'S, WOKING. 


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t 


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a 7 7 tae ae (ede oe eos ¢ 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 221 


those who had died of smallpox. The first 
building erected disgusted the art-loving Parisian 
who likened it to a “dust destructor” or “ sewage 
farm,” for it certainly compared very unfavourably 
with the English efforts at Woking. 

In the early forms of incineration, the body 
placed on the pyre was literally roasted by the 
flames, and reduced to a cinder. 

The first scientific efforts were in the direction 
of the forming of a wall of flame, covering but not 
touching the body. In its perfected state, a light 
pine shell is provided in which the body reposes 
wrapped in a flannel shroud. The coffin is placed 
on a platform during the funeral service, at the 
conclusion of which, mechanism set in motion by a 
lever in the chapel, carries the coffin out of sight 
of those present on its way to the furnace, where 
coffin and body are soon reduced to ashes by the 
intensity of the heat. 

To burn a special form of furnace-coke in a 
forced draught is a very different and much less 
costly matter than the old method of burning 
wood, as used by the ancients. If a sufficient 
demand existed to keep the modern type of 
furnace at the proper temperature, the cost of a 
cremation need not exceed half a crown. 

The first cremation at Woking took place on 
March 26th, 1885, the “Gorini” furnace being 
used. 

The first “ subject ” was a woman, a fact which 
appears to have been overlooked by the leaders 
of the “Woman’s Movement,’ for purposes of 
propaganda, and to whom the writer respectfully 
commends it. 

Three years later, nearly a hundred bodies had 
been dealt with, and the accommodation was 
improved by the erection of further buildings. 


222 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


The necessary funds in the early days of the 
movement in England were subscribed by a few 
ardent reformers, amongst whom the Dukes of 
Bedford and Westminster took a large share 
of the financial responsibilities. The Duke of 
Bedford provided a private crematorium for the 
exclusive use of his family, which was first used 
at his own death in 1891. 

In France, any person of age has the right to 
dispose of his or her body by will to be either buried 
or cremated as they may desire. These instructions 
are legally binding on the executors, who render 
themselves liable to a considerable fine in the 
event of non-compliance. This opens up an 
interesting point, for very strong views are 
commonly held on the matter. 

In this country a person ceases to have any 
legal control of his body at the moment of death, 
so that one wishing to be cremated or buried as the 
case may be, whose relatives are likely to take an 
opposite view of the matter, must resort to a trick. 

Property should be left in these circumstances 
to those responsible for the disposal of the body, 
conditionally upon the wishes expressed being 
faithfully fulfilled. 

A good story illustrating the point was told by 
the late Sir Benjamin Richardson—one of the 
early advocates of cremation. 

An old gentleman called on Sir Benjamin one 
day. He stated that he had been so much 
impressed by what he had read on the subject that 
he most earnestly desired that his body should be 
cremated at his death, but his family would not 
hear of such a thing. In these circumstances he 
begged Sir Benjamin to consent to act as executor 
in order that his wishes might be carried out. 
Sir Benjamin explained the legal position, and 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 223 


suggested his visitor should leave a large sum of 
money to the cremation society in the event of 
objections being raised by his daughter, who would 
otherwise receive his fortune. 

Shortly after this interview the old gentleman 
died. Almost immediately Sir Benjamin received 
a visit from a clergyman, who said he had heard 
of his father-in-law’s peculiar desire to be cremated, 
but he was sorry to say he could not allow this to 
take place as both he and his wife held very strong | 
views on the subject. Sir Benjamin Richardson 
observed “that of course if it was really against 
the wishes of the family he could do nothing to 
prevent them disposing of the body by burial, but,” 
he added, “as a matter of fact, ’m jolly glad, for 
in that case my society will benefit to the extent 
of something like ten thousand pounds.” This 
unexpected announcement produced the desired 
effect. 

On the following day Sir Benjamin received a 
letter from the clergyman, who wrote that after due 
consideration the family had decided that as it 
would be a greater sin to allow the money to go to 
the society they withdrew all opposition to the 
cremation of their relative’s remains.’ 

It has been stated that from the earliest times 
to.the present the voice of the Christian Church 
has ever been emphatically raised against any 
form of cremation. It is true that since its 
introduction into this country less than fifty 
years ago a number of the laity and even the 
clergy of the Established Church, as also those of 
various other Protestant bodies, have submitted to 
this form of disposal, but they have done so as a 
matter of individual preference and on the strength 
of a personal opinion. They have ignored, not 


1The Observer, October i5th, 1916. 


224 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


denied, what history makes so perfectly and 
indisputably clear, that since the inception of 
Christianity it has been not only a non-Christian 
practice but one that was strictly forbidden. In 
dealing with the Christian standpoint we must 
therefore differentiate, without making any 
invidious distinction, between those who without 
denying a tradition hold an individual opinion, 
and act as their private inclination dictates, and 
those who place the Christian tradition before 
their individual preferences. Generally speaking, 
however, the advocates and supporters of the 
modern crematorium are those who, for want 
of\,a, better term; ,may ‘be ;describedias hysaee 
thinkers.” 

Superficially, the reason why the Early Church 
objected to the funeral pyre is that the body of its 
Founder was buried, but this in itself can hardly be 
called a logical reason. ‘Traditionally, the body 
was not buried in the earth, as we bury, but walled 
up in a sepulchre, according to the manner of the 
Jews. 

We have considered reasons given by early 
Christian writers for such common funeral practices 
as the ceremonious washing of the dead, “because 
this was done to the body of our Lord.” In view 
of the fact that these were customs of Jewish 
origin we must trace them further back than the 
Christian era if we wish to know something more 
about them. The Jews notoriously acted in all 
matters affecting personal cleanliness and hygiene 
with an extraordinary discernment. 

How great was the horror of cremation among 
the Jews is clear from the fact that the burning of 
the body was added to the death penalty as a final 
indignity, much in the same manner as a felon 
was condemned at one time by the laws of our 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 225 


own country, first to be hanged, then drawn and 
quartered. | 

The burning of the body of Saul might seem to 
be a remarkable exception to the rule, but the 
immediate circumstances must be taken into account. 
In the first place, Saul died by his own hand, 
and secondly, his mutilated remains were secured 
only by a dangerous expedient from the victorious 
Philistines.* In this case, if we follow the narrative, 
we shall find a strong supposition that the remains 
were thus destroyed by fire as the only means of 
saving them from greater indignities. The matter 
is still further elucidated by the fact that the burning 
of the body was held to account for the three years 
of famine in the time of David. 

Modern orthodox Jews oppose cremation as 
“not in consonance with the spirit of Judaism.” 
Dr. Herman Adler, the Chief Rabbi of Great 
Britain, pronounced it “a violation of Jewish 
laws.” 

More liberal minds have held that it is the duty 
of a Rabbi to officiate if asked to do so at the 
funeral of a co-religionist, rather than to refuse 
on the grounds that cremation is an anti-Jewish 
practice. Others would give their services as 
ministers of religion, but retire before the actual 
cremation. Such instances are, however, quite 
modern and notable as exceptions only. 

The Jews, believing that the stages of decay in 
the grave were experienced as physical pain by the 
deceased as an atonement for sins, might very 
well hesitate to commit their remains to the 
flames.* 

A Jew recently deceased, left a remarkably 
unorthodox provision in his will, insisting amongst 


Seam tel Sexi 124i 
2 « Jewish Encyclopedia. 


226 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


other things that he should be cremated and the 
ashes cast to the winds without any religious 
ceremony or memorial. 

A representative of the Daily News, wishing to 
learn the attitude of the Jewish community on the 
matter, approached the Chevra Kadisha, one of the 
leading Jewish societies connected with the rites 
of the dead. Here he learned that “the Society 
has on several occasions deprecated cremation as 
opposed to the sentiment and spirit of Judaism.” . 

It would seem, therefore, that whether the 
Christian merely adopted the Jewish custom 
because it was Jewish, and despised cremation 
because it was pagan—or if they disposed of the 
body of their Founder in the Jewish manner for 
some separate reason—the fact remains that neither 
Jews nor Christians can be cremated without 
violating the most ancient and sacred traditions 
of their respective beliefs. 

That such reasons will not deter many 
professing either faith from so disposing of their 
bodies goes without saying. 

The revival of psychic investigation came much 
into vogue about the same time as_ scientific 
cremation. The growth of this cult has been 
very remarkable, and it may be interesting to note 
what the modern occultist has to say about the 
matter. Amongst a lot of contradictory experi- 
ences we gather that it is generally held that the 
spiritual counterpart or personality does not leave 
the body for a considerable time after death, and 
that it is attached meanwhile to the seats of the 
emotions by a cord visible to those who are 
psychic. Any violent interruption of the slow 
processes of nature is therefore harmful. In this 
connection it is interesting to remember that the 
Jews did not seal the sepulchre after the dead had 


CREMATION, EMBALMING 227 


been deposited there till three days after death 
had taken place, during which time the relatives 
constantly visited the tomb hoping that signs of 
returning life might be manifested. 

In the ancient world the Egyptians are credited 
with a very special knowledge of occult matters, and 
they performed very many most elaborate rites for 
the dead, with which the Israelites became familiar, 
having learnt embalming from them. To this 
nation incineration was utterly opposed to their 
traditional practices. 

Without any attempt to dogmatize on a 
subject about which really very little is defined, 
even a superficial study of the question of crema- 
tion will show us that this method of disposal is 
certainly not a zecessity from the sanitary point of 
view. That it introduced a certain element of 
danger in the hands of the criminal, and that it 
is directly opposed to western practice and 
tradition. 

It may be said in favour of cremation that it 
is both quick and cleanly, and that it dispenses 
with the necessity of burial grounds. In its 
place we have the “columbary” or dove-cot, so 
called from the niches or pigeon holes it provides 
for the cinerary urns containing the ashes. These 
receptacles, which may be hired for a term of 
years, take up so little space that it would be 
difficult to spend any large sums of money on their 
adornment. 

In this matter they certainly have an advantage 
over the grave. As a rule a marble lining and a 
bronze erille enclosing the aperture is the sum 
total of extravagance. Needless to add that in 
most cases the vulgarity and shoddy ugliness 
peculiar to the undertaker’s works has left its 
impress on the urn and casket. The inscription 


228 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


is invariably lettered in the worst possible style, 
or perhaps more correctly in no style at all. 

Here and there, as the eye wanders over row 
upon row of niches, an exception may be found, 
designed perhaps by an artist, and not selected 
from the catalogue of the trader. 

With such exceptions, by far the best receptacles 
are those which are either actual replicas of, or 
designs based on the ancient Greek or Roman 
examples found in the catacombs and elsewhere. 

Undoubtedly the revival of cremation has 
necessitated the reconsideration of many funeral 
practices, and it might be reasonably hoped that 
“ grave goods ” would-have been abolished amongst 
other things. 

This unfortunately is not the case, for it is 
quite common to find in the niches sentimental 
offerings for the solace of the departed spirit—if 
for any other purpose what is the object of placing 
it in or near the urn, photographs of relations, 
artificial flowers, favoured volumes of poetry and 
other personal trifles? 

In view of the fact that the Dismal Trader 
has been responsible for conserving from one 
generation to another the rags and tatters of pagan 
survivals, it may be interesting to inquire what 
are the views of the modern undertaker on the 
subject of cremation, but let him speak for him- 
self. The following is an extract from a letter 
written by an undertaker to the editor of the 
Undertakers Journal: 


“Has the undertaker considered the value of 
cremation from the commercial point of view? 
Looking it straight in the face, I think if it became 
more general the undertakers would not be required 
to supply much in the way of ‘deautiful caskets,’ 


CREMATION, EMBALMING ~— 229 


and possibly at times the crudest and cheapest 
form of coffin would be used to convey the body 
to the crematorium. If such is the case,” he 
continues, “the undertakers are acting in a most 
noble and unselfish manner in advocating crema- 
tion, or they have failed to realize the importance 
from this point and possibly have never considered 
the value of embalming.” 


Here, then, we have a frank and unvarnished 
admission of a fact that cannot be too widely 
recognized, namely, that the undertaker is a trades- 
man, and as such we must expect him to “push” 
the line which brings in most grist to his mill, and 
as long as the public is foolish enough to be gulled 
by his “pinkings and prickets” he is going to 
provide them—naturally ! 

Before leaving the subject of cremation there 
is one little matter which seems worth attention. 

When the dramatic moment arrives for the 
cofhn to pass from the sight of the mourners on 
its way to destruction, and before it goes forward 
to its fiery ordeal, the undertaker “behind the 
scenes” is given an opportunity to remove the 
“beautiful furniture” with which the coffin is 
provided. 

The writer was informed by an undertaker that 
it was “generally hired,” a fact which no doubt is 
always made gwite clear to the distressed relatives 
when the funeral arrangements are made. But 
there seems a possibility of this little matter being 
forgotten as a case reported recently in the daily 
press seems to indicate. A lady saw a coffin-plate 
bearing her husband’s name exhibited as an 
advertisement in the window of an undertaker, 
whom she promptly and successfully sued. This 
leads one to wonder what happens to the coffin 


230 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


or casket in similar circumstances. Cannot one 
imagine as the great craftsman contemplates the 
labour and artistry of his craft about to be ruth- 
lessly and even needlessly committed to the flames, 
that he may desire to “snatch” from the burning, 
so to speak, the child of his creation, not overlook- 
ing, of course, to deduct its second-hand value 
from the bill. 

We have seen the ancient practice of embalm- 
ing recommended to the trade as a more profitable 
matter than cremation. 

If we know anything at all of the activities of 
the modern undertaker we must have noted that 
the study of scientific embalming is receiving 
at the present time the greatest attention from all 
progressive members of the trade. 

Even Canada has its “ Embalmers’ Associa- 
tion,’ and we find their annual convention being 
“opened with prayer,” for prayer is, of course, 
more or less connected with the business, and the 
undertaker generally, and particularly the embalmer 
is a great stickler for niceties, as the following 
quotations will show. 

A gentleman described as a Professor,’ in 
speaking on the subject of embalming, urges the 
necessity of a close attention to detail. For 
instance, he advises that “the body should be laid 
in a comfortable position in the casket.” “ Every- 
thing just exactly as you would like to have it 
done for one of your own family,” he advises. In 
order to demonstrate the point he gives us an 
instance within his own experience of neglect in 
such matters. It appears that a young friend of 
the Professor had died unexpectedly “in the East,” 
the body being embalmed and forwarded to him, 
presumably for burial. The embalming seems to 


1 The Undertakers’ Journal, October 15th, 1913. 











@ 
FE. eralitry Fc MSG y ¢ aches (eves Hl se / y hve, Lh (a ye 
wot hers manticned Ww" Grinly (fin Ve 


UNDERTAKER’S SIGN AND ADVERTISEMENT 
(Eighteenth century). 


CREMATION, EMBALMING - 281 


have satisfied an expert examination, but other 
things were most irregular. “ They had put a suit 
on him,” we are told, “but the trousers were 
turned up ”—evidently not the permanent turn up 
so often recommended by the tailor, “for straw 
and stuff ” were disclosed in the folds. Moreover, 
the clothes had not been brushed, “ Fortunately,” 
says the Professor, “the body came to my 
establishment, but suppose it had gone home 
first!” There were other marks of carelessness 
exhibited in this particular instance, which were, 
no doubt, put right with a generous hand. 

“TI don’t object to spraying the casket and 
lining with some nice perfume in order to get the 
odour of flowers instead of the odour of death,” 
he continues, and one cannot help wondering if 
there must be an odour of some kind, if the honest 
and homely smell of carbolic or some other clean 
disinfectant would not be preferable to a choice 
blend of corpse and camellias recommended by 
the Professor. 

What is there to be said for or against 
embalming? From the point of view of the 
trade it has no doubt very much to commend it, 
for you can sell your richest, most beautiful casket 
and obtain in addition a liberal fee for embalming. 

In cases where a body is brought from a 
distance, certainly some such sanitary methods 
might be usefully employed, but we have still to 
be convinced that there is any circumstance or 
combination of circumstances where the removal 
of a body from the place where death occurs 
is either necessary or advisable. 


CHAPTER’ XItl 


IN MEMORIAM 


‘“* They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old, 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn 
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning 
We will remember them.” 
—Lawrence Binyon.* 


In dealing with the subject of this chapter, 
important as it is, to some extent it is outside the 
general purpose of this book, which properly ends 
with the consideration of burial. The writer 
claims and hopes to have demonstrated the fact 
that the funeral traditions to which we unreasonably 
and tenaciously cling are not dictated by our 
religious beliefs, and only approach them in those 
cases where obviously pagan or Jewish customs 
have been made use of by the churches, as a means 
of expressing a Christian sentiment. 

From the earliest times, and by people widely 
divided in their mode of life and their beliefs in 
a future spiritual existence, the special care for the 
well-being of the soul after death has been a 
primary consideration. 

What is generally referred to as the “ worship 
of the dead” is one of the primitive instincts. 

To speak of worship in this sense, is, however, 
misleading, for it is possible to correctly place a 
variety of widely different interpretations on the 


1 Lawrence Binyon, ‘‘ For the Fallen.”’ 
232 





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IN MEMORIAM 233 


word, which expresses anything from the “ pay- 
ing of divine honours” to “treating with civzl 
reverence.” What is the sense of the word in the 
marriage service, for instance, “with my body I 
thee worship?” 

History offers many examples of the “ worship 
of the dead” in either of these senses, and in 
various shades of intermediate reasoning. 

The ancient cult of ancestor worship gave a 
special significance to the virtues of family life, 
for it placed a serious load of responsibility upon 
the children of the future generation, to carry 
forward not only the traditions of the family to 
which they belonged, but also to tend lovingly and 
faithfully in varying fortune the spiritual and even 
temporal necessities of those who had gone before 
them. Ancestor worship is, moreover, directly 
associated with the special privileges and responsi- 
bilities of the first-born son, who assumed with his 
inheritance certain definite duties, nor were these 
duties a pledge of sentiment only. Further, it 
alone explains many of our present-day notions 
concerning succession. 

It was the duty of the first-born son to tend 
and protect the graves of his ancestors, supplying 
food and performing many elaborate ceremonies. 
In another chapter we have dealt with food offer- 
ings and sacrifices founded on the belief that the 
spiritual counterpart at least of the material 
substance offered was necessary in order to protect 
the soul from actual starvation. 

The practice is still general in the East to-day, 
whilst the enlightened West continues the super- 
stition as long as it 1s content to sacrifice “ offer- 
ings ” of costly exotic flowers to wither and perish 
with a few hours’ exposure at the graveside. 

What we have chiefly to consider now is the 


234 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


offering of prayers for the welfare of the departed 
souls, and to trace the history of this very general 
usage. 

The first thing that must strike an unpre- 
judiced mind is the fact that like the Eastern food 
offerings, either prayers are—or they are not— 
absolutely necessary to the departed spirits. Was 
the welfare or the existence of the soul imperilled, 
whose children neglected to provide the food 
offering? Either it starved or it did not, there 
could be no half measures. 

Does the soul whose relatives neglect or refuse 
prayers for its repose and spiritual welfare suffer 
in any way as a direct consequence of this neglect? 
Either it does or it does not—once again, there 
can be no half measures. 

When we study the special festivals for the 
commemoration of the dead we shall find a strange 
counterpart of the feasts of “ All Souls” and “ All 
Saints,” and moreover, timed in the same month, 
and frequently on the same day as the Christian 
festivals. 

Haliburton tells us that the festival of the 
dead or feast of ancestors is now, or was formerly 
observed at or near the beginning of November 
by the Peruvians, the Hindus, the Pacific Islanders, 
the people of the Tonga Islands, the Australians, 
the ancient Persians, the ancient Egyptians and the 
northern nations of Europe, and continued for three 
days amongst the Japanese, the Hindus, the 
Australians, ancient Romans and the ancient 
Egyptians. ‘The month of November was formerly 
called in Persia “ the month of the Angel of Death.” 

With regard to the Peruvian festivities of the 
dead, he writes: “The month in which it occurs, 
says Rivers, is called Aya Marca, from Aya a 
corpse, and Marca ‘carrying in arms,’ because 


IN MEMORIAM 235 


they celebrated the solemn festival of the dead 
with tears and lugubrious songs and plaintive 
music, and it was customary to visit the tombs of 
relations and to leave food and drink, and this on 
the same day as the Christian festival (November 
2nd). In Mexico the festival of the dead was 
held on November 17th, and a human victim was 
offered up to avert the dread calamity believed to 
be impending over the human race.” * 

The Corsicans slaughtered oxen at the grave, 
giving the meat to their neighbours in honour of 
the dead. Bread, wine and meat were thus dis- 
tributed, whilst in modern times bread and wine 
are served to the poor in this manner on the 
anniversary of the death of those who can afford 
to do so, and particularly on the feast of the dead, 
November ist.” 

Garnier says that “in Rome the festival of the 
dead, or Feralia (called Dit Manes or ‘The day 
of the spirits of the dead’), commenced on February 
17th, corresponding also to the 17th day of the 
second month.” * Many other instances could be 
quoted. 

In some countries it is believed that on the 
special day set apart in honour of the dead, the 
spirits return for the occasion in order to be once 
more with their friends. 

In Japan on this festival, little boats made of 
straw and paper are placed on the water in order 
that the souls may thus be conveyed to their 
relations. 

In Brittany a plate of pancakes is provided for 
their entertainment, but the ghostly visitors must 
not linger too long over their meal, for they 


. G. Haliburton, ‘‘ The Year of the Pleiades.’’ 
nye Rossi, ‘‘ Les Corses.’ 
. Garnier, ‘‘ Worship of ih Dead.”’ 


236 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


are bound to return to the spirit world before 
cockcrow.* 

The Serbians give their dead a special enter- 
tainment on the occasion of the Feast of their 
Patron Saint George (May 6th, orthodox calendar). 
It is a time of much rejoicing, and is accompanied 
by a great slaughtering of animals, which are 
roasted on spits in the open air. The graves are 
decked with flowers in profusion, whilst the choicest 
dainties are also placed there for the delectation of 
the honoured dead. 

This is an ancient pagan ceremony of ancestor 
worship which, since Christian times, has been 
respectably hidden beneath the cloak of St. George. 

What is the fate, we may ask, of those 
unfortunate souls who by disaster or mischance 
have failed to secure a resting-place in the burial 
grounds, and are therefore likely to be left out in 
the cold in these annual rejoicings—the patriot, 
for instance, dying for his country on some foreign 
field of battle—how is he to be provided with 
material or spiritual refreshment? 

Such a fate was more dreaded by the ancients 
than the most violent means of death. It was even 
used as a form of final insult and degradation after 
the worst that could be inflicted on the poor wretch’s 
body had been done. It was a revenge more 
horrible than the “drawing and quartering” of 
the body which once expressed the last word in 
contempt and hatred in this country. 

An Act passed as a result of the rising in 
Scotland in the year 1745, and not repealed till 
1772, necessitated the taking of a very binding 
oath against the carrying of arms. It is interest- 
ing as showing the horror expressed at ¢hat time 


1A, Mauricet, ‘‘ L’isle aux moines ses meceurs et ses 
habetants.”’ 


IN MEMORIAM 237 


of the thought of a non-Christian burial. “If I do 
so (carry arms, etc.), may I be cursed in my 
undertakings, family and property—may I| never 
see my wife and children, father, mother or 
relations—may I be killed in battle as a coward, 
and lie without Christian burial in a strange land, 
far from the graves of my forefathers and kindred 
—may all this come across me if I break my oath.” * 

The cenotaph or empty tomb of which many 
of our memorials are a remnant, was erected when 
the body lay elsewhere, in order that due honours 
might be paid to the dead. 

We are reminded how the vanquished Hector 
begged upon his knees—not for his life—but that 
his body might not be given to the dogs. “Take 
the gold my father will offer you,” he supplicates, 
“that I may have honour at the funeral pyre.” 
The thought that his body should be chopped and 
hewn by “ The Seller-of-the-Dead” and weighed 
against its weight in gold held no terrors to his 
mind compared with a dishonoured sepulture. 

First in the pagan mind was the apprehension 
of an endless torment, of neglect at the tomb, 
hunger, thirst and helplessness. 

How touching, too, is the old story of the 
parents of the dead Athenian soldiers, who, dressed 
in mourning garments, clamoured before the 
Council—and not in vain—for the execution of 
the victorious general, despite the fact that he had 
returned a victor—had indeed saved Athens from 
the spoilers—in his haste to claim his laurels he 
had left the dead unburned on the field of battle. 
To appreciate the story we must remember that 
the Greeks committed the bodies of the slain 
to the flames of the funeral pyre oz the battlefield, 
the bones being collected and brought back to 


1 Alfred Mark Webb, ‘‘ The Heritage of Dress.”’ 


238 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Athens with the utmost reverence, where with 
much solemnity, orations and processions they 
were provided with a fitting tomb. 

Again we may ask what of the sailor who dies 
at sea? 

The fisherfolk of Brittany have a picturesque 
custom to keep alive the memory of those poor 
fishermen of whom the sea yearly takes its heavy 
toll. 

On receiving the news that a sailor had been 
drowned, the parents or nearest relatives constructed 
a cross of wood which they placed on the empty 
bed or on the family table; candles were lighted 
and placed round the-cross, whilst the friends and 
relatives of the deceased were summoned to spend 
the night in the house, where prayers were said for 
his soul exactly as if the body were present. On 
the following day a procession was formed and 
the cross carried to where Mass was said. At an 
earlier period the cross which reposed on the altar 
during the ceremony was afterwards buried, but in 
more recent times it was deposited in an urn and 
left in the church till several other crosses were 
collected, when the whole were buried. 

On All Saints’ Day the womenfolk make a 
trip in the boats, and having sailed a certain 
distance from the shore they solemnly recite the 
“De Profundis” for their husbands, sons and 
brothers who have been drowned in earning a 
scanty livelihood, and whose bodies have not been 
recovered. 

We cannot go very deeply into the custom of 
offering of prayers for the welfare of the dead 
without realizing that the practice presupposes 
some state other than the states of bliss, or of final 
condemnation. As far as the Christian standpoint 
is concerned it brings us to the highly controversial 


IN MEMORIAM 289 


question of the existence or non-existence of the 
intermediary realms of purgatory, where it is 
believed by the Greek and Roman Churches that 
the souls of the departed work out the results of 
their misdoings during their life upon earth, and 
here—and here only—can be helped by the 
intercession of their friends and relatives. 

In the “Zuna” or holy book of the Moors 
(Mohammedan) we read that when a man dies two 
angels visit his grave, one bearing a rake and 
another a heavy iron weight. Presently a third 
angel appears and begins to question the dead man 
as to his mode of life. Did he give alms to the 
needy? Did he observe the various rites in 
connection with his religion? If these questions 
were answered to the satisfaction of the inquisitor 
then two attendants were summoned who were in 
robes of dazzling whiteness; one of these took the 
head of the corpse and the other the feet, and so 
lifting it from the grave they hold it in this manner 
till the Day of Judgment. If, on the other hand, 
the inquisitors were not satisfied with the replies 
to their questions, or had reason to suppose that 
the truth was being withheld, then he called to the 
angel who bore the iron weight with which the 
corpse was crushed back again into the grave 
“seven forearms deep.” When this had been 
done the angel with the rake proceeded to drag 
the body up again, and so this unrestful process 
continues without cessation till the Judgment Day. 

This crude conception of a _ purgatory 
necessitated a special form of tomb in which a 
tiled space was provided so that the corpse could 
kneel during its interrogation. It was further 
provided that the grave clothes were not fastened 
in such a manner as might restrict the movements 
of the body. Attached to the shroud was a letter 


240 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


written with saffron and salt water, by means of 
which an appeal was made to the Angel of Justice 
that the corpse might altogether escape or at 
least have a speedy release from the purgatorial 
pains.* 

The ancient Egyptians preserved the body in 
the belief that in a space of three or four thousand 
years the soul would return to inhabit its earthly 
form once more. In the meantime it was thought 
to wander through a series of incarnations in the 
shape of the lower animals, which for this reason 
are not killed for food. 

In view of the fact that the early Christians 
adopted such Jewish. customs as the anointing of 
the body because this was done traditionally with 
the body of their Founder, it is interesting, before 
examining the Christian tradition, to ascertain if 
the Jews themselves believed that prayers for the 
dead were effective or necessary. 

“As the well-known passage in the second 
book of Machabeus (2 Mach. x11. 44-46) abundantly 
proves,” says Thurston, “the idea of a resurrection 
and the belief that the time of that resurrection 
might be accelerated by the intercession of the 
living was present to the minds of some at least 
of the Jews in the first or second century before 
the Christian era.” The sacred writer states in 
unmistakable terms that, “ If he (Judas Machabeus) 
had not hoped that they that were slain should rise 
again it would have seemed superfluous and vain 
to pray for the dead. .. . It is therefore a holy 
and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that 
they may be loosed from their sins.” 

“It may be said that the prayer known as 
the Kaddish is now commonly considered by the 
Jews to have the power of releasing the soul 


1 Guichard, ‘* Funérailles.’’ 


IN MEMORIAM 241 


of the deceased from punishment in the next 
world.” 

A curious case came before the Whitechapel 
County Court (1916). A Jew, whose aunt had 
lent the sum of 447 to a builder, sued him for the 
repayment of the loan on which a few instalments 
had been returned before the death of the lender. 
The defence was put forward that it had been 
agreed that in the event of death any balance of 
the loan then due was to be cancelled on the 
understanding that the borrower should say prayers 
for the repose of her soul. This unique agreement 
was said to have been made in the presence of 
witnesses, who “ crossed hands ” over the covenant. 
For the plaintiff it was claimed that prayers 
purchased were not considered as of value by the 
Jews, and that the builder in order to cover his 
debt, would have had to pray for nearly a year. 

This incident, however, clearly shows that 
praying for the dead is still a Jewish custom. 

Thurston gives some interesting particulars of 
early Christian practices. He says: 


“The earliest unmistakable example of 
Christian prayers for the dead is probably that 
afforded by the famous Abercius monument, 
discovered some years ago at Hieropolos, in Upper 
Phrygia, by Sir William Ramsay. ‘The significant 
part of the inscription which alludes allegorically 
to many of the most distinctive mysteries of the 
Christian faith, terminates with the line—‘ That 
the fellow-believer who understands these words, 
pray for Abercius.’ ” * 


Here is another of the ¢hizvd century. The 
broken slab containing it is now in the Christian 
Museum of the Lateran. 


1 Herbert Thurston, S.J., ‘‘ The Memory of our Dead.”’ 


Q 


24.2 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


‘“ To sweet Lucifera, my wife all sweetness, 
To her husband nought remains but deepest grief, 
But ane has surely merited to have an epitaph set up to 
en 
That whoso of the Brotherhood who read it may pray 
to God 
That he take to Himself her holy and innocent soul.’”’ ? 


It should be remembered that whilst the early 
Christians made a special point of celebrating the 
anniversaries and the festivals of the Saints and 
the departed generally, they did not think it 
necessary to mark the actual year of the decease, 
so that it is often rendered very difficult to trace 
the period. 

There seems to be abundant evidence that from 
the earliest days of Christianity prayers for the 
dead were a common practice, as they are to-day, 
in the Roman, Greek and other Churches throughout 
the world. 

In our own country, the Established Church 
definitely repudiates the existence of the spiritual 
state of purgatory or place of purification, and 
therefore also the value of prayer as helpful to the 
dead. 

The authoritative decrees of the various 
denominations merely denote the position of each. 

The Catholic view was defined by the Council 
of Trent, viz., “That there is a purgatory and 
that the souls there detained are assisted by the 
suffrages of the Faithful, but ‘especially by the 
most acceptable sacrifice at the altar’” (1.e., the 
Mass). 

In pre-Reformation days this doctrine was 
responsible for the erection of many churches, the 
foundations of many charities and the support of 
the chantry and the chantry priest. The chantry 


1 Herbert Thurston, S.J., ‘‘ The Memory of our Dead.”’ 


IN MEMORIAM 243 


chapels were built as a memorial of the founder, 
where the priest frequently said various offices 
for the dead and celebrated a special Mass on the 
anniversaries of the founder and his family, and 
distributed alms to the poor. 

Ditchfield says, “ There were in England about 
two thousand chantries, founded chiefly in the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which were all 
despoiled by Henry VIII and Edward VI at the 
Reformation, on the grounds that they were devoted 
to ‘superstitious’ purposes. Much of the wealth 
was the property of the poor left to them by pious 
benefactors.” * 

The Established Church holds that purgatory 
and therefore prayers for the dead cannot be 
supported by the Scriptures. This position is 
defined in the twenty-second Article of Faith, to 
which all her clergy subscribe, which reads, “ The 
Romish doctrine concerning purgatory is a fond 
thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no 
warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to 
the Word of God.” 

However, there appears to be a _ tendency 
amongst a certain section of the clergy of the 
Church of England to-day to fall into line with the 
rest of Christendom in the belief not only of the 
existence of purgatory, but in the practice of 
praying for the souls of the departed. 

At the Westminster Assembly of Divines in the 
year 1647 the Presbyterians put on record their 
belief in this matter, which may be held to be that 
of the Free Churches generally. Dealing with 
“the state of man after death” they assent in the 
belief of heaven and hell, and conclude, ‘besides 
these two places for souls separated from their 
bodies, the Scriptures acknowledge none.” 


1P. H. Ditchfield, ‘The Old-time Parson.” 


244 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


In the year 1645 the “ Directory for the Public 
Worship of God ” decreed “ concerning the burial 
of the dead, and because the custom of kneeling 
down and praying by or towards the dead corpse, 
and other such usages in the place where it les, 
before it be carried to burial, are superstitions, and 
for that praying, reading and singing, both in 
going to and at the grave, have been grossly 
abused and are in no way beneficial to the living, 
therefore let all such things be laid aside.” 

At the time of the Reformation the “ Directory ” 
made the further unmistakable protest to the 
older custom, “when any person departs this life, 
let the body be decently attended from the house 
to the place appointed for public burial and there 
immediately interred without any ceremony.” 

Let us now look at the festivals of All Saints 
and All Souls, which, as we have noted, appear in 
the Christian calendar at much the same time as 
they are celebrated by non-Christian peoples in 
various parts of the world. 

All Saints’ Day, November rst, known also as 
All-Hallows’ Day, was instituted in the year 837 
by Pope Gregory IV to take the place of the much 
earlier festival of the Peace of the Martyrs. 

All Souls’ Day is said to have been instituted 
in the year 1048 by St. Odilo of Cluny. It is 
celebrated on November 2nd in addition to the 
feast of All Saints by the Roman and Greek 
Churches, for the special memory of the souls in 
purgatory. All-Hallows’ Eve is still observed in 
many families by games and superstitions which 
are a relic of pre-Reformation times, when the eve 
of the festival of All Souls was welcomed by a great 
burning of fires on the hills, to attract the wandering 
spirits, and the ringing of bells. 

In some parts of England the occasion is kept 


gx Alfectionate Remembrance of 


MARY ANN SIMPSON, 


The beloved wife of James Tarr, 
Whe departed this life Mayed 25th, 1876, 
: IN HER 834TH YEAR. 


Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale, 
Yet will [ fear no ill; 

Por Thon art with me, and Thy rod 
And staff me comfort still. 


oe 


+ 


FI 


A, In Afectionate Bemobrance oe NS 
tk MARY HANNAH IVEY, 


Who Departed this Life Octeber 25th, 1876, 


AGED 12 YEARS 10 MONTHS | 
Interred in the East London Cemetery, Grave No, 1913 


errant 


1 heard the voleo of Jesus say, 
Come unto Me and reat, 

Lay down thou weary one lay down 
Thy head apon my breast, 





MEMORIAL CARDS. 





IN MEMORIAM 245 


in mind by the children who sing from house to 
house, as they sing the Christmas carols: 


“Soul, soul for a souling cake, 
I pray you, good missus, for a souling cake, 
Go down in your cellars and see what you can find, 
Your apples or your pears or your good red wine; 
If you ain’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do, 
If you ain’t got a ha’penny, then God bless you.”’ 


This request is followed by the customary 
“bang” of the knocker, as a reminder that a gift 
of some kind is expected. Needless to say, the 
modern child is simply “out for spoil,” but in the 
old days the poor seriously collected in this 
manner the wherewithal to celebrate the feast of 
All Souls which was kept on the following day in 
good earnest, with a great consumption of cakes 
and “wassail”’ (a concoction of apples, sugar and 
spiced ale). “Soul-cakes” were baked for this 
occasion similar to the “soul-cakes” of Belgium, 
which are distributed to-day at the funeral repast. 

The connection between this feast and the 
eating of apples calls to mind an interesting 
ceremony which was at one time common in 
Brittany, where the cult of the dead has ever been 
rigorously observed. On All Souls’ Day in every 
parish several houses would be opened for the 
purposes of the festival, which was celebrated in the 
following manner : 

A cake of bread was baked and placed on the 
kitchen table, which was covered with a “ fair 
white cloth.” Planted in the centre of the bread 
was a little tree, from the end of whose branches 
red apples were suspended. The whole was 
covered by a serviette. 

The neighbours being assembled round the 
tree, the master of the house proceeded to recite 


246 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


the special prayers for the repose of the souls of the 
dead, to which the people made the customary 
responses. At the conclusion of the prayers, the 
serviette was lifted and the bread was cut into as 
many pieces as there were persons present to 
receive it. Each, as he took his portion, was 
expected to make a small payment. Should 
anyone withhold his money, it was believed that 
he would shortly meet with the greatest misfortunes, 
brought about by the revengeful spirits of his 
parents. The money so collected was given to the 
church in order that Masses might be said for the 
repose of the souls in purgatory. At night, the 
tree which had graced the ceremony was carried 
away with great respect by the person selected to 
act as host on the next anniversary. “The apples 
might be eaten, but the tree was a sacred trust, to 
be tended with care till the following year, when 
a fresh supply of apples was provided.* 

In the West of England, cider making 
commenced on All Saints’ Day and for the reason 
that it was connected with the pagan autumn or 
fruit festival, for which the Christian Church 
substitutes the feast of the dead. 

Under the name of “La Mas Ubhal,” or 
‘Apple Mass,” it was at one time recognized in 
Ireland. 

We may also trace a connection in the custom, 
which is hardly extinct in this country, for the 
farmer to give a supper to his men on All Saints’ 
Day to mark the end of the wheat sowing. Tusser 
thus refers to the practice: 

‘‘ Wife, sometime this week if ye weather hold clere, 

And end of wheate sowing we make for the yeare, 


Remember ye therefore, though I do not, 
The seed cake, the pastries, the furmety pot.’’ ? 


1De Braz, ‘‘ La Légende de la Mort chez les Bretons.’’ 
2 Tusser, ‘* All Saints.”’ 








IN MEMORIAM 247 


Let us see what traces exist in modern times of 
the ancient cult of ancestor worship. 

In France, to-day, we still find the light-hearted 
Parisian lunching at the cemetery each year, on the 
occasion of the feast of the dead, and decorating 
the graves of his ancestors. A Catholic country 
and a Catholic practice, it may be said, yet we find 
the Welsh—staunch Protestants as they are— 
decorating their graves with flowers at the great 
November festival. 

The “memorial card” still holds its own in 
this country as a necessary part of the funeral 
observances, though its original function, as a 
reminder to pray for the soul of the departed, may 
_ have been forgotten. 

It sometimes happens on the Continent at 
carnival time that the gorgeous procession of 
fantastic revellers is confronted by a procession of 
quite another character—a passing funeral. At 
once a respectful silence hushes the noisy laughter. 
Instantly a hundred silly headgears are doffed, 
whilst with bent heads a prayer is muttered for the 
repose of the soul of the departed. 

In our own streets, the roughest wayfarer— 
more often than men of other classes—pulls off his 
cap—perhaps a little self-consciously—when he 
meets the dead. Ask him why he does so, and he 
cannot tell you—* out of respect ” he may answer, 
after thinking the matter over, possibly for the first 
time, for he is all unconscious that he is merely 
obeying a traditional impulse which has its roots 
in pre-Reformation piety. 

The writer witnessed the following incident in 
a crowded London street. 

Four soldiers, one a Belgian and_ three 
Englishmen, were standing on the kerb when a 


funeral passed by. The English Tommies gazed 


248 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


at the commonplace sight disinterestedly and 
continued to smoke; directly the Belgian caught » 
sight of the procession, he clicked his heels and 
came smartly to attention, raising his hand to the 
“salute,” and keeping it so till the hearse had 
passed. The English soldiers watched the little 
Belgian for a moment and first one, then two, 
followed by a hesitating third, cigarette dropped 
half-finished into the gutter. 

Perhaps no more remarkable example could be 
found of the deeply rooted belief in the service due 
from the living to the dead, than the custom of 
erecting “war shrines” in the streets—a practice 
which became very general throughout the country 
after the war. Not content with the “roll of 
honour” which might reasonably be disassociated 
from any charge of worship, these “shrines” as 
they are commonly called (Nuttall defines a shrine 
as “a case, a reliquary, a tomb, a sacred place ”) are 
to be found as a rule outside a place of Protestant 
worship, where they have been erected by loving 
hands. A Crucifix is generally placed over the 
shrine, which is decorated with floral offerings. 
Lest we should misjudge the intention, let us take 
an extract from the daily press, which is largely 
responsible for the movement. 

In an article in the Evening News, we read: 


“Even now, many people may have but a hazy 
idea of what a ‘war shrine’ is. A ‘war shrine’ 
is a roll of honour, on the tablets of which the 
names of those who have gone from the street in 
which the shrine stands into the navy and the 
army, and those who have died for their country, 
are written. The frame contains a form of prayer 
for the men. There is a canopy of flags, and the 
whole is ornamented by flowers, laid fresh upon 


IN MEMORIAM 24.9 


the shrine by the wives and children, sisters and 
sweethearts who stand in silent prayer for the 
heroes for a few moments every day.” * 


To suggest that these war shrines are a public 
rejection of the Protestant doctrine on the subject 
of prayer for the dead would be to overstate the 
case, nor is there necessarily any intention shown 
in this surely very beautiful innovation to return 
to Catholic and pre-Reformation practices, but that 
it points to a deeply inherent desire to bridge the 
gulf, which has in this country separated the 
living from the dead, is equally incontestable. 
The “war shrines” would certainly have shocked 
the narrow views held even one_ generation 
ago. 

Every year adds to the number of those who 
for one reason or another prefer to remain outside 
the sphere of the generally recognized Christian 
denominations, but who by no means accept the 
views of the materialist. It is always interesting 
to follow the trend of their inquiries, and we shall 
do well to study their views where we find them 
definitely expressed. What, for instance, have 
they to say who are unbound by traditional 
doctrine on such a subject as the utility or other- 
wise of prayers for the dead? 

From an article on the subject contributed to 
the /xternational Psychic Gazette, we quote the 
following : 


“Side by side with the enlarged views of life 
advanced by the new theology, we have ever 
multiplying instances of the ability of some gifted 
persons to act as mediums for communicating with 
the unseen world. Everything of this nature must 


1 Evening News, October 6th, 1916, 


250 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


tend to raise the question—can we by our 
sympathy and prayers do anything to help 
departed souls along the path of progress we 
believe it is their destiny to tread? Will our 
prayers for them avail to bring them the help 
they need? I have not the slightest hesitation in 
answering these questions in the affirmative, for 
my own experiences leave me without a shadow 


of doubt.” 


The writer of the article then proceeds to 
relate personal experiences resulting from a 
mission he was called upon to undertake “from 
the Unseen,” to help “unprogressed souls in the 
Unseen” who were dvought to him for the purpose. 
He describes the state after death where he tells 
us all souls progressed, or unprogressed, make a 
stay according to their individual necessities, in 
which they learn the lessons they should have 
learned on earth before going on to a higher 
existence, and he adds “it is these unprogressed 
ones who want all the sympathy and help their 
friends on earth can give them.” Further, he 
quotes a story said to have been related to him 
“by one of the clergy of St. Peter's, London 
Docks, of a woman who had recently passed away 
appearing to reproach a district visitor for a for- 
gotten promise to pray for her soul, a fact afterwards 
verified by notes.” * 

Not only at the time of death, but on the 
anniversary of the event, and on special festivals 
and occasions of family importance, it has been the 
custom to honour the dead in various ways. 

The anniversary has always been celebrated 
with certain formalities, a curious method being 
the “chime-barrel,” the prototype of the barrel 


1 Thomas Atwood, ‘ Prayers for the Departed,’”’ /nxternational 
Psychic Gazette, November, 1913. 


IN MEMORIAM 251 


organ, on which a dirge is played from street to 
street in order that the neighbours might not 
forget to offer their prayers for the repose of the 
soul of those whose memory was thus kept green. 

In Brittany even the betrothal ceremony was 
blessed by the departed ancestral spirits, an 
instance of the intimate relations which tied the 
“ quick and the dead.” 

It was the proper thing for the lover to send 
a message to plead the cause with the father of 
his beloved. This was done in verse, which after 
setting forth the qualifications of the suitor and 
the depths of his passionate devotion to the lady, 
ended thus: “the benediction of the dead of your 
family I cannot ask, because in so doing I should 
render sad the many loving hearts; better is it, 
therefore, to pray for their souls, and I beg of you 
to join me in saying a song for their repose.” 
The song having been said, the “ De Profundis” 
was recited, after which the parents would give 
or withhold their consent to the union as circum- 
stances might dictate. It was believed that if this 
ceremony should be omitted the spirits of the 
slighted ancestors would surely avenge them- 
selves on the bride. 

Whilst on the subject of marriage we are 
reminded of a present-day custom. In the Roman 
Catholic church a coin, the symbol of worldly 
possession, with which the bridegroom promises 
to “thee endow,” is afterwards treasured all her 
life by the bride in order that it may eventually 
be given back to the church for Masses to be said 
for whoever dies first, the husband or the wife. 

To hold that the question of the value of 
prayers for the dead is merely one of personal 
opinion seems unreasonable, for the intercession 
of the living is either of vital importance or 


252 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


superstitious and useless. It is, however, a 
matter in which each must act according to his 
lights, and perhaps the brief outline which is all 
that it has been possible to give in considering 
the whole aspect of our funeral customs, may 
serve at least to remind those who have never 
given any thought to the matter of the importance 
of this controversial problem. 


CELA. PAs Ray, 
MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS AND MOURNING CARDS 


AT a time when a lavish expenditure on 
“memorials” of various kinds has taken place, 
we shall do well if we consider the origin of a 
very old custom. 

When we have stripped any one of our funeral 
observances of its crape and tinsel—those grave- 
clothes of convention in which they have been 
preserved and embalmed—we shall find very little 
that is worthy of continuance. 

Any excessive manifestation of grief is the 
outcome of self-pity and disbelief in a spiritual 
existence. The wearing of “doole,” the funeral 
procession and other such ceremonial observances, 
have their origin in a vulgar pride of estate and 
an inherited dread of revengeful spirits. 

So, too, we shall find that a passion for 
erecting memorials to all and sundry has little 
more to commend it. 

In the early days of commercial prosperity in 
this country we have seen how the successful 
trader hustled his spiritual or social superior in 
the graveyard to such an extent that he fled for 
sanctuary into the neighbouring churches; nor was 
he allowed to remain long in this favoured position 
before the wealthy merchant bought “is way in 
also. 


253 


254 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Pushed to extremity with the trader in full 
cry, a chase ensued round the walls of the church 
to the final place of privilege at the very steps of 
the altar, where saint and sinner could do no more 
than mingle their dust. Yet there was a further 
opportunity for self-aggrandizement, and we may 
be assured that it was not neglected. Competition 
started in the erection of elaborate memorials. 
Every degree of society went one better than its 
predecessors, whilst those who remained crowded 
out in the burying places, not to be outdone in their 
desire for a public recognition of the achievements 
of their dead, gradually left the simple green 
mounds which had sufficiently covered the more 
worthy remains of their ancestors, and on a rising 
tide of prosperity advanced step by step from 
wood to stone, and from stone to marble, building 
monuments larger and more vulgar and ostenta- 
tious each time that Nature provided them with 
the opportunity of exalting the family name. 

To see this madness at its climax we have to 
go no farther than the nearest cemetery, packed 
with columns, pillars, crosses, urns and railings, 
as Closely as the bristles on the back of a hedgehog. 

For paucity of invention, vulgarity of concep- 
tion and feeble craftsmanship—for lack of effect, 
collective or individual, for unsuitability and costli- 
ness—it cannot be outdone. Perhaps there is 
nothing which we shall hand down to future 
generations more utterly damning to our intelli- 
gence or artistic pretensions than the enduring 
monuments we have erected to our dead. 

We find the early Christian Church building 
shrines in which to preserve the venerated remains 
of her saints and martyrs, and we may be sure that 
the saints and the martyrs would be the very last 
to make provision for any such memorial to their 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 255 


own honour. At the most they would have 
desired a small stone, asking for the prayers of 
the faithful. 

The object that the Church had in view was to 
perpetuate the memory of those of her community 
whose life was recognized as full of virtues, and as 
such, worthy of emulation. 

In like manner the Romans perpetuated the 
memory of their great warriors and citizens. 

This was all very admirable as long as it was 
regulated by an authority competent to judge to 
whom posthumous honours should be paid. 

The King inherits with his office the power to 
confer titles, and to raise the commoner to the 
ranks of nobility. We can well imagine if the 
right to confer such honours was common to all 
who considered that the dignity of their family 
justified the distinction, then, in a very short 
time, we should all be lords or dukes, and such 
titles would cease to have any special significance. 
The abuse of the once honourable title of esquire 
is an example. 

In this manner the erection of a memorial for 
the perpetuation of a name without any authority, 
stands for nothing more than the personal and 
biased opinion of an individual who has enough 
money to gratify the pretensions of his family. 

In pre-Reformation days we find large sums 
of money spent to keep green the memory of the 
dead, but in a spirit of humility rather than of self- 
advertisement. 

Those, indeed, who had committed some out- 
rage on society were often the first to lavish money 
on memorials of one sort or another, in order to 
gain the prayers of such as would benefit by their 
liberality. 

“Pray for the soul of 


3) 





is the perpetual 


256 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


form of inscription in stone or brass on the tomb- 
stones in the Middle Ages. Munificence in the 
provision of mourning garments, jewellery, gifts 
of money, food and the foundation and endowment 
of churches, chapels and charitable institutions 
was at one time very common, for it claimed as a 
first consideration the assurance of a lasting 
memory, and a place in the prayers of future 
generations. 

Such of these institutions as have escaped the 
greed of those who often used sectarian differences 
as an excuse for robbery, still celebrate their 
“founder’s day.” If this annual festival is not 
kept exactly in the spirit in which the patron 
would have desired, some thoughts of affection at 
least must go outwards if not upwards to those 
who made such good use of the riches with which 
they had been entrusted. 

“A great man’s memory may outlive his life 
by half a year, but byr Lady he must build 
churches then,” says Hamlet. 

Three separate reasons have impelled the 
erection of monuments to the dead. First, a 
belief that the body dwells or sleeps in the place 
prepared for it. Secondly, to mark the spot where 
a person of some special attainments has been 
buried, in which case a suitable inscription is pro- 
vided, setting forth the claims of the deceased to 
public recognition for the edification of future 
generations. Thirdly, the provision of a stone 
or tablet asking the prayers of co-religionists for 
a departed soul. 

We have examples of all these methods in this 
country. Many of the ancient barrows offer ample 
evidence of the once common practice of making 
food offerings to the dead. The pagan (as well 
as the Christian) mode of honouring the great by 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 257 


a recital of their claims as pattern lives is well 
illustrated by various Roman remains which still 
exist in this country, notably at Colchester, where 
there is a finely sculptured stone bearing the effigy 
of a Roman centurion, clad in richly decorated 
armour, and holding a staff. (the symbol of his 
authority) in his hand. Beneath this figure the 
following inscription is engraved: 

“Marcus Favonius, the good natured (or 
courteous) son of Marcus of the Tribe of Pollia, 
a centurion of the twentieth legion. Verecundus 
and Novicas, his freedmen, placed this (memorial). 
He lies here.” The work has been pronounced 
by Hubner to be probably of the age of Vespian.* 

Despite the ruthless iconoclast many examples 
yet remain of the pre-Reformation memorial. 

What of the modern graveyard on which we 
spend countless thousands of pounds yearly? 

Surely it is optimistic to suppose that our 
present standard of moral excellence is so high 
that all these labyrinths of stone commemorate lives 
so noble and deeds so worthy, that for the public 
edification they should be thus immortalized. 
Were we to do so unusual a thing as to walk in 
a cemetery for the purpose of gathering lessons 
from the deeds of the dead, we might be deeply 
impressed by the recital of their sanctity—of 
indulgent husbands, loving fathers and _ saintly 
children buried there, apparently leaving behind 
them a world broken and desolated by the tragedy 
of their departure. 

We are reminded of a certain pious individual, 
whose expression was likened to a hymn—so 
that people who saw it on week-days wondered 
what it looked like on Sunday. Conversely we 
may ruminate on the solid and unexpected virtues 


1A. Clifton Kelway, ‘‘ Memorials of Old Essex.’ 
R 


258 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


ce 


of our fellow citizens “as advertised,’ and wonder 
what they were like on a week-day, but it is hard 
to believe with so much yeast of perfection, the 
whole lump of humanity has not long since been 
leavened. 

It will not surprise us to find the religious 
sentiments of a generation expressed by the 
inscriptions on their tombstones. 

Several admirable books have been written on 
epitaphs, but only so far as they are useful as 
types shall we quote from the almost inexhaustible 
sources in our churches and burial-places, which 
anyone with a little interest in the matter may 
easily collect? 

The following epitaph well illustrates the pre- 
Reformation idea of giving to charity or supplying 
the needs of the Church with a view to being 
remembered after death. It comes from Holm- 
next-the-Sea, Norfolk (early fourteenth century). 


‘‘ Henry Notyngham and hys wyffe lyne here 
Yat maden this chirche stepull and quere 
Two vestments and belles they made also 
Christ hem save therefore ffro wo 
Ande to bringe hem soules to Chris at heven 
Sayth Pater and ave with Mylde Steven.’’ 


The constant formula, “Pray for the soul 
of r “Jesu Mercy” of the pre-Reformation 
inscription, was forsaken after that event in favour 
of a much more confident style, which remains 
more or less the pattern which we follow to-day. 

The following, taken from an inscription in 
the parish church of Rye, Sussex, is only one of 
endless examples which might be quoted. 





“ Here lyeth the body of Thomas Proctor, who 
died November 27th, 1775, aged 73 years. 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 259 


‘* Trust to his word, a friend sincere, 
From every vicious folly clear, 
In all his dealings what he gained 
Was truly honestly obtained. __ 
He ne’er through life the poor did grind, 
Nor any owing him confined ; 
Peace he maintained with all his neighbours, 
And well paid all men for their labours. 
Do as he did, God will you save, 
And cause you happy from the grave.’’ 


These claims are far reaching, but perhaps not 
so inclusive as those expressed on another stone 
to be seen in the same place: 


“Sacred to the memory of Ann Maria Stonham, 
Who died September 2oth, 1846, aged 63. 


Ye that would learn her worth who sleeps below, 
Read Virtue’s pages through from end to end, 
Leave not a word unmarked, and thou will know, 

The virtues that adorned a valued friend.”’ 


Sometimes the virtues of the deceased are 
commemorated with rather curious frankness. The 
following appears on a tomb in Bunhill Fields: 


To 
Dame Mary PAGE, 


Wife of Sir Gregory Page, Bart., 
died March 11th, 1728, in her 56th year. 


In 67 months she was tapped 66 times 
240 gallons of water drawn without ever 
repining at her case or ever fearing the 
operation. 


In the eighteenth century, when religion in this 
country had sunk to the lowest possible ebb, we 
shall naturally find the effect upon the tombstone. 
From the pompous recital of personal qualities 
and achievements we have epitaphs which vary 
from the jocular to the frankly obscene. 


260 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


On the spot where the hideous statue of 
William IV now stands, facing London Bridge 
(which he opened), once stood a celebrated hostel 
known as The Boar’s Head Tavern. Here it was 
that one John Preston served as a potman, and we 
select the inscription on his vine-covered tombstone 
in the churchyard of St. Magnus, the Martyr, as 
typical of the doggerel of that period (1730). 


““ ROBERT PRESTON 

Late ‘ Drawer’ at The Boar’s Head Tavern 
Bacchus to give this toping world surprise 
Produced one sober son and here he lies 
Though nursed amongst full hogsheads, he defyd 
The charms of wine-and every vice besides 
Oh, reader, if to justice thou’rt inclined 
Keep honest Preston daily in thy mind. 
He drew good wine, took care to fill his pots 
Had sundry virtues that outweighed his faults 
You who on Bacchus have the like dependence, 
Pray copy Bob in measure and attendance.”’ 


A favourite form of epitaph about this time was 
one which played on the name of the deceased. 
An amusing example of this is contained in the 
story told of Jerrold the wit, who expressed an 
opinion that a good epitaph should contain no 
more than two words, including the name of the 
deceased. Charles Knight, who was present when 
the remark was made, at once handed Jerrold a 
pencil and a piece of paper, and asked him to write 
his (Knight’s epitaph) with these limitations. 
Jerrold took the paper and wrote, “Good night.” 

Sometimes the humour is not intentiorial, as in 
the case of the widow, who after much thought 
and consultation with her friends, caused the 
following to be engraved on her husband’s tomb: 


‘* Rest in peace-—until we meet again.”’ 





‘MALUVN AHL SANDVW ‘LS AO ‘Gaiund OSTV SI NVANOAY NHOL AYHHM 
GuvVAHOUNHO AHL NI NOLSHYd LYAAOU AO HdVIIdH AHL ‘SGTHIA TIIHNOGD NI AOKAHC TAINVG AO ANOLSANOL 





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a: D lal a) ae > 
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’ 6. a?) a hy 
‘aay |e ae 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 261 


It is not without significance that the eighteenth 
century tombstone very rarely bore any cross or 
other Christian symbol. The skull and cross- 
bones, urns and fat cherubs were the motives 
generally employed. On the other hand, the 
shape of the stone was often very admirable, and 
the carving, and especially the lettering, infinitely 
better than anything produced to-day. 

We have been considering the epitaphs of the 
orthodox Christian types, but if it be true that the 
religious sentiments of any period are reflected by 
the inscriptions in the graveyard, it will also follow 
that the free-thinker, the materialist and the 
philosopher will express their particular views by 
the same means. Some of these are very beautiful, 
freed as they are from the shackles of convention. 
Perhaps the best known comes from Hull. 


‘* Here lie I, Master Elginbrod, 
Have mercy on my soul, O God.”’ 


So far it might be one of the ordinary pious 
expressions of pre-Reformation date, were it not for 
the dramatic challenge of the concluding lines: 


‘* As I would have if I were God, 
And thou were Master Elginbrod.”’ 


The frequent allusion to “sleep,” which is a 
common form, is worth some little investigation. 

W. J. Locke quotes the following from a 
German churchyard, which is beautiful in its frank 
acknowledgment of human frailty: “I will awake, 
Oh Christ, when thou callest me, but let me sleep 
awhile—for I am very weary.” * 

This is quoted because it says honestly and 
in bold words what so many other inscriptions 
hesitatingly suggest, namely, that the dead are 


1W. J. Locke, ‘‘ The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne.’’ 


262 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


sleeping in a physical sense in their graves. We 
have noted that it was a very general superstition 
amongst various peoples, that the body confined to 
the ground remained there in a state of semi- 
consciousness, even suffering as the Jews believed, 
the actual pains of dissolution as a punishment for 
sins committed. 

The ancient Greeks believed that in a material 
sense their dead were at rest. “ Here sleeps so- 
and-so”’ they wrote over the grave. Have we 
not acquired from them something more of this 
superstition than is shown by our adoption of 
the word “cemetery.” The Greek equivalent of 
this signified “to lull to sleep.” 

How do we behave in the presence of the 
dead? The sleep-like appearance of the body is 
undoubtedly the reason why we converse in hushed 
whispers, lest we should disturb the sleeper whilst 
one of the most popular hymns frequently sung in 
the church or at the grave-side expresses the same 
thought, “ Leave we now thy servant sleeping.” 
Of course it could be argued that whilst such 
terms are admitted and some reference to sleep is 
made on every other tombstone, the word is not 
intended to express actual sleep, but repose in a 
state of bliss which the Established Church, 
together with other Protestant bodies, believes 
the soul has attained, without the intermediary 
state of purgatory to which the Roman and Greek 
Churches subscribe. 

That the letters R.I.P stand for something more 
material than a state of spiritual refreshment to 
the average mind, cannot, however, be honestly 
contradicted. 

It is a popular belief that the erection of some 
sort of monument is a necessary finishing touch to 
the funeral ceremonies, and trading on this absurd 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 2638 


conviction we shall find the marble mason’s 
emporium exhibiting the horrors of his craft at the 
very gates of the cemeteries of any pretensions. 

“Strike while the iron is hot,’ says an old 
adage, a truth which the Dismal Trader has 
learnt well enough to profit by, for well he knows 
that if a reasonable time were allowed for 
sentimental false values to adjust themselves, the 
greater part of his living would be gone. 

What is true of the private funeral is not less 
true of the public funeral. Almost before the 
breath is out of the body, some well-meaning friend 
or relation starts a subscription list for the purpose 
of a “ suitable ” memorial, and according to the sum 
collected so a more or less expensive monument 
is erected. Subscriptions in such cases are largely 
made up of sums given for business or social reasons, 
and seldom represent, even at the time, any 
spontaneous offering. Not only is this sort of 
thing unjust to the living, but equally unjust to the 
memory of the dead, for after the wave of sentiment 
has passed the pretensions of the dead are judged 
not by the weight or costliness of the tomb which 
covers their remains, but rather by what they have 
done to further the cause of humanity. 

The son of a self-made man erects a memorial 
at great cost at the death of his father, selecting 
for the purpose the finest position in the town 
where his wealth has been accumulated, honestly 
or otherwise. 

By such means are we burdened with inartistic 
memorials erected to nobodies, which endure long 
after the reputation of those they represent has 
found its true level. Our churches and cathedrals 
suffer from exactly the same sort of thing, 
subscription tombs and monuments of forgotten 
politicians, painters whose pictures, once popular, 


264. FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


now hardly fetch the price of their frames, poets 
whose work nobody reads. 

To distinguish between the various forms of 
memorials, we must remember that some were 
erected over the place of sepulture, whilst others 
took the form either of a cenotaph or empty tomb, 
or merely a commemorative stone or tablet. 

The tombstone took the place of the ancient 
obelisk or menhir (derived from the Celtic words 
signifying a “high stone”), the tomb itself was 
generally in the form of the Dolmen altar or table 
tomb. 

A memorial stone or cross was at one time 
commonly placed where the coffin of a distinguished 
pert had rested on its way to burial. At the 
oot of these crosses, all other coffins which passed 
that way, rested also. 

The Elinor (Queen of Edward I) crosses are an 
instance of this. Twelve were erected, of which but 
three remain. 

Charing Cross is a copy of the cross at 
Waltham. Incidentally, it is interesting to note 
that Charing Cross does not necessarily derive its 
name from the memorial, as is popularly supposed. 
The word Charing is said to be derived from the 
Saxon word, Cerran, which means a sharp turn or 
angle, and is thought to refer to the peculiar twist 
which the river takes at this point, which renders 
navigation very difficult to the larger crafts.’ 

We have inherited from past ages very few 
things which excite so great and general an interest 
as the monuments found in so many of our churches 
preserved from the time of the Crusaders. 

It has been generally believed that from the 
crossing of the warrior’s legs could be seen the 
number of wars in which the Crusader had taken 


1 Burns, ‘‘ Journal of the London Society.”’ 


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MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 265 


part, or, as others supposed, it signified the taking 
of a vow to proceed to the Holy Land, and that 
the action often noted of the sword of the knight 
in the act of being sheathed represented the 
accomplishment of his purpose. Unfortunately, 
this interesting supposition does not always accord 
with historical facts; as Clinch points out, this 
view 1s not now generally held, and that the cross- 
legged attitude was merely a convenient and 
conventional manner of dealing with the limbs.’ 

The addition of a lion or a dog at the feet of 
the Crusader was a symbol of courage in the case 
of the lion and faithfulness in the case of the dog. 

It is little wonder that the churches and 
cemeteries contain so many examples of neglected 
and decaying tombstones which it has ceased to 
be anybody’s business or interest to repair, a 
matter which reminds us of that remarkable person 
Robert Peterson, from whom Sir Walter Scott 
took the character of “Old Mortality.” 

Peterson was born in Hawick, Scotland, and 
was brought up as a stone mason. He was a man 
of deeply religious convictions, and belonged to 
an austere sect known as the Cameronians. At an 
early date he deserted his wife and family and 
devoted the remaining forty years of his life to 
the erection and repair of the tombs of the 
Covenanters who had suffered persecution in the 
reign of Charles II. He wandered from church- 
yard to churchyard, his sole companion being an 
ancient shaggy white pony which lived on the rank 
grass growing round the neglected graves. 

He died in the year 1801, a statue being erected 
to his memory which shows him engaged in his 
labour of love. 

A society was founded in 1889 called The 


1 George Clinch, ‘‘ English Costume.’’ 


266 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


Association for the Preservation of the Memorials 
of the Dead. This otherwise solitary instance of a 
mission in the service of the dead is in striking 
contrast to the damage and destruction of tombs 
of which we find so many instances throughout the 
pages of history. 

In the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII 
the destruction of tombs was an_ obsession. 
Elizabeth, when she came into power, issued a 
special mandate against such vandalism, despite 
which, ruthless despoliation still continued. 
Tombs were hacked to pieces, and the marble of 
which they were composed was used for various 
secular purposes. Those especially suffered which 
bore the typical inscription of the old faith. It is 
said that Robert, Earl of Sussex, paved his larder 
and kitchen with the marble gravestones of his 
ancestors, to obtain which he did not hesitate to 
demolish the choir of Atlebrugh Church (Norfolk). 

Perhaps nothing suffered more at the hands of 
the destroyers than the memorial brasses, which 
richly embellished the majority of the churches at 
that period. 

No doubt this vandalism originated in a sort of 
religious frenzy, but it was certainly continued for 
the sake of profiting by the sale of the materials thus 
obtained. Brass, which always fetched a ready 
price, was easily removed, and the theft covered by 
melting down the metal into ingots or moulding it 
in the form of weights or other articles. In some 
instances memorial brasses were torn from the tombs 
for sheer mischief, and found their way more or less 
undamaged into lumber rooms and odd corners, 
from which they were later recovered and replaced 
in their original positions. 

These simple and beautiful memorials followed 
the earlier forms of incised slate or stone. They 


MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 267 


came into vogue in Henry VIII’s reign. Originally 
used as a coffin plate, they were frequently richly 
enamelled by the Flemish, who brought the custom 
to this country, but the art died out, later examples 
being of brass only. The best brasses are very fine 
in workmanship, the engraved lines being clear and 
simple. Gradually an attempt to obtain effects by 
shading with cross-hatched lines vulgarized the 
work, till it ceased to be of any artistic merit. 

As in the case of the marble tombs, the brasses 
which bore the inscription “orate pro anima” were 
the first to suffer. It is not uncommon to find traces 
of still earlier workmanship on the reverse side of 
these memorials, which had been purchased as scrap 
brass from those who had stolen them, and later 
were worked up again for other purposes. 

Occasionally memorial brasses are used to-day, 
but generally in commemoration of the clergy, whose 
robes or vestments lend themselves to a decorative 
and conventional treatment. It is an amusing 
comment on the ugliness of modern costume, which 
admits of no literal artistic representation, but our 
newly acquired sense of humour refused to submit 
to the substitution of the “ toga,” which was not long 
since a common expedient. 

The coffin “ furniture,” dear to the undertaker’s 
heart, is otherwise all that is left of the memorial 
brass. Anything more degraded in design and 
execution it would be impossible to describe. A 
glance through the catalogue of the wholesale firms 
who sell this rubbish to the trade will show a fearful 
collection of “ new art” and other debased designs, 
if one may call them so, largely savouring of German 
origin. [he cheaper variety were made before the 
war, by that enterprising nation, out of old tins and 
cans stamped under pressure and brass-plated. 

The now abandoned custom of presenting 


268 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


mourning jewellery in memory of the dead, was 
once a very general practice. Many of the old 
jewellers’ trade cards show as an important part of 
the design a tomb on which an inscription was 
engraved, advertising all kinds of memorial rings 
and jewellery. 

In the Middle Ages, and later, “ mourning 
rings” were frequently mentioned in wills, a certain 
sum of money being set apart for the purchase and 
distribution of these mementoes to the relations and 
friends of the family. 

Sometimes attendants and officials received their 
share also, as a curious extract dated 1719 reminds 
us. Itis taken from the records of the [ronmongers’ 
Company, and shows the Dismal Trade of the 
period in an unfavourable light. 


“ The master acquainted the Court that one John 
Turney, an undertaker for funerals, had lately 
buried one Mrs. Mason, from the Hall, but had 
refused the Master Warder and the Clerk each a 
ring, etc., according to his agreement, the persons 
invited being served with gloves, hatbands and 
rings.” 


Anne of Cleves left by will several mourning 
rings of various values for distribution at her 
death. 

In Shakespeare’s will (1616) sums of money were 
mentioned for the purchase of rings for several of 
his friends, three of which were for “‘ My fellows” 
as he affectionately calls his brother actors, 
Hemynge, Burbage and Cundell. Izaak Walton in 
1683 willed rings as “a friend’s farewell,” the cost 
of which he specified as 13s. 4d. each. For his 
wife and daughter he desired rings to be made and 
to be inscribed “‘ Love my memory,” whilst to the 
Bishop of Winchester he presented one on which 





MOURNING JEWELLERY. 


ce 


Brooches with Painted Memorial Miniatures and ‘“ Lockets,”’ i.e. cases con- 
taining “‘ locks ’’ of human hair. 


(From jewellery kindly lent by Edwin Good, Esq.) 








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MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 269 


were engraved the words, “a mite for a million,” 
I. W. obit. 

In Pepys’ Diary in the appendix appears a list 
of a number of persons to whom mortuary jewellery 
was to be presented at his death, which took place 
in 1703. Forty-six rings were to cost twenty 
shillings, sixty-two were to be of the value of 
fifteen shillings, and twenty of the value of ten 
shillings each.* 

We may be certain that Evelyn, who so dearly 
loved to uphold the “funeral decencies,” would 
not be behind in the matter of rings. 

His child died in 1658, when he writes : 


“I caused his body to be coffined in lead and 
deposited on the 30th at eight o’clock that night in 
the church at Deptford, accompanied with divers 
of my relations and neighbours, among whom I 
distributed rings, with the motto, ‘ Domincus 
abstutit.’ ” 


For the burial of Charles I seven rings were 
made, containing a miniature of the King’s head 
behind a death’s head, and a motto, “ Prepared be 
to follow me.” 

A sentimental attachment to locks of hair is of 
very old origin. The Greeks cut the first hair of a 
child, the beard of a youth, and the tresses of a 
maiden, these they offered to the gods. On the 
death of a parent the hair of the children, cut off as 
a token of grief, was placed with the body. Some- 
thing of this practice was carried forward in the 
custom of preserving the hair of a deceased person 
in a special receptacle in memorial rings, brooches, 
lockets, etc. 

The hair was woven or twisted in various ways, 


1 Wm. Jones, F.S.A., ‘‘ Finger Ring Lore.’’ 


270 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


and formed quite a feature of the mortuary jewellery 
a generation since. 

The use of black enamel in rings was much in 
vogue in England, white enamel being frequently 
substituted in the case of a child or young person. 
Some of the brooches of the eighteenth century are 
very fine in workmanship. ‘They frequently contain 
as part of the design a miniature painted on ivory, 
representing an urn with a figure (sometimes a 
portrait of a bereaved husband or wife) weeping over 
a tombstone, with the usual accompaniment of 
willows and the like. Small seed pearls were very 
often introduced as an enrichment, and for the 
value of their symbol of tears. 

Most of the brooches were so formed as to pivot 
on their frames, disclosing a miniature, or in later 
days, a daguerreotype of the deceased. 

The habit of burying jewels with the dead has 
been largely responsible for many acts of sacrilege. 

There have been many curious superstitions in 
relation to the wearing of rings. 

The inhabitants of some of the Greek Islands 
believed that the soul could not leave the body as 
long as a ring remained on the finger. This 
rendered it necessary for those who watched over 
the dying to hastily remove the rings on the first 
symptoms that death had taken place, in order to 
allow the soul to escape from the body.’ 

Superstition still maintains that the turquoise is 
affected by the ill-health of a person wearing it, and 
that it remains dull and leaden in appearance after 
death, till worn by a person in good health, when it 
is said to regain the peculiar colour for which it is 
noted. 

If these mortuary jewels were as a whole very 
ugly, what shall be said of the hideous lumps of 


1 E. C. Woodward, The Englishwoman, June, to1t. 


MOURNING JEWELLERY. 


Inlaid jet ear-rings, brooches, and gold and enamel 


(From jewellery kindly lent by Edwin Good, Esq.) 





rings. 


’ Ne. 


i ae: 4 





MEMORIALS, EPITAPHS, RINGS 271 


crudely manufactured jet which it is still considered 
by some classes of society to be necessary to wear 
when “in mourning,” or the even more preposterous 
“half-mourning” sets of ear-rings and the like, in 
which a little silver is introduced to lighten the effect. 
Whitby, which for centuries has been the seat of the 
jet industry, still carries on a trade on these ghoulish 
appendages, impervious alike to enlightenment or 
ridicule. 

F-ven so sketchy a chapter on the subject of 
memorials must not be closed without mention of 
the still popular mourning card. 

Here again, we find that in its original use, it 
was intended as a reminder of the departed, in order 
that the recipient might offer prayers for the repose 
of his soul. 

In its present form the mourning card is a modest 
affair, printed in black and silver, and exhibiting 
all that elementary lack of taste which is so marked 
a feature of everything connected with our funeral 
customs. It contains, as a rule, in addition to the 
name and age of the deceased, some symbol of the 
Christian faith, sufficiently obscured by a wreath of 
lilies or ivy, in order to render it acceptable to all 
shades of religious opinion. A verse selected from 
some popular hymn expressing a pious aspiration, 
preferably in relation to “sleep,” is added, but 
avoiding, of course, all the pitfalls, either definite or 
dogmatic. 

In most family Bibles, earlier examples of the 
mourning card will be found. These are for the 
most part embossed in a white relief on a black 
background. The pierced or fretted variety was 
once very popular; these were most elaborate, and 
contained the usual symbols of grief—urns, weep- 
ing angels and willow trees. 

Various degrees of black-bordered note-paper 


272 FUNERAL CUSTOMS 


and envelopes are still in use. Some few years 
ago, a revolutionary mind introduced an innovation 
which consisted of a black corner to the envelope 
in place of the sable border. Needless to say, this 
departure from orthodoxy had but a short life, and 
was soon overcome by the unwritten laws of funeral 
tradition. 

The old-fashioned tradesman, on whose house- 
hold death had laid a heavy hand, was wont to put 
up the shutters of his shop as a token of mourning. 
The consequent loss of business, in days of keener 
competition, suggested a modification, which took 
the form of a simple black-painted board in place 
of the shutters, a custom which is still to be met 
with. 





EXTRACT FROM AN OLD LEDGER 


An interesting record of the cost of various items supplied for a 
funeral in the year 1824. 


OY 


vi ern ahaa fae 


Her tha Sutermetuk of Medi Martha Warley ah Utangpirr 
Miyaw, tafe’ OLhe Bi faery SEE 


ot darng wrth wits tathiw 

ge aa atl fille -- ~~ SIH — 
Bald - tothe tathw- ---- 9 @ - 
i. T-, he LA of dame tefl — ee 
Mo as nt eae 
Ma Spl ors en UO, SON ms 
-Y¥- ating He tame--- - ttc oo ne 
PR Pie ei hb oca CaN iatian pane Me gb ee LL 0 - 
3 TS pe cecaternaise aaa anton AN NET 
3 US Sen aC (2le ut PA 

A he folunce of test Clack: Jthrich ( 

fl0 - fte<- : MA Naira 
ig eee Geviy yee eae Btu pi Be 


ahh — Gryace -— - JO We 
2-4 Lukes of Crag - ----~---- FOUaS 
FP -4 J is thiflaubl opel tuck dl terval 72 12 ~ 


$6. /4— CB oa Zz 10-13 O 


273 S 





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Lhbaks Qtetbdel blethewts thes our 
a4 - CO Ages beck dees so---- 
fa ld -— #2 
As ep pnhe wisn Neo e gt soot lak Veena 

Velocd : 


_—_—— — = 


ers 


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tupe~Ltinew Merictack beat Ina... 
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| Mek Lelhitearg Eh tland a Aad 
Baten CLG; hte rf carced WaT Wtatuamew 
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99 —A# f f tie Mn bs 


274 


9 fisate Bhat bt Wotbanc peg, 
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GLB 


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ofenb Chon, Cl iudlxices ; en aa 


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HEARSE OF WrouGHT Iron. (Spanish. 14th cent.) 


The hearse took many forms, but was always sur- 
mounted by a forest of prickets or spikes on which 
candles were impaled. These were lighted during the, 
funeral ceremonies, and afterwards on special feast 
days, particularly at the anniversary of death. Tra- 
ditionarily, they were triangular in form. 


Fic. 2 illustrates a modern votive-candle stand, and 
as such is to be found in most Catholic Churches 
to-day, it is worthy of note that these stands are still 
known as ‘‘Hearses.’? They are directly descended 
from the medieval wrought iron ‘*Hearse’’ or 
** Hearse light.’’ 


277 








INDEX 


ALL HALLOWS EVE, 244, 245 
All Saints, feast of, 234, 238, 


244 
All Souls, feast of, 234-6 
Altars, origin of, 135 
Ancestor worship, 101, 
251 
Animals, slaughter of, 50, 
60, 206, 235 
Animism, 71 
Ankow, 156 
Anniversaries, 70, 84, 
gas, 240, 242, 251 
Ants, 13, 14 
Arms, reversed, 204 
Apples, 245, 246 
Mass, 246 
Associated ideas, 17 
Averil, arvel, 104 
Aya Marca, 234 


233; 


109, 





BANSHEE, 21 

Barbe, oI! 

Barrows, 131, 140 

Baton, 128 

Beds, 94 

Bees, 14, 79 

Belgium, 104, 108 

Bellman, 84 

Bell, mort, 82 

——— passing, 82, 185 

——, Rogation, 84 

eeSOUL, 62,03 

Bells, 27, 53 

Bidder, 84, 85 

Bier, 35, f15, 116, 119 

Black death, 183, 184 

—— magic, 63, 71, 73 

Body, burning, 208 

——, disposal of, 222 

——, disturbing, 173-5 

” snatching, 176-81 

Bones, removal of, 137, 
174 

Boots, reversed, 205 

Breathing test, 23 

Bridges, 123 








1735 


Brittany, 64, 65, 94, 123; 
154, 155, 162, 474, 175, 
235 


Bronze Age, 21! 
Brouardel, Dr., 23, 29, 220 
Brunetti, 220 

Bulgarian, 100 

Bumping coffin, 124 
Bunhill Fields, 259 

Burial, cave, 43 

: chested, 42, 43 

clubs, 96 

, congested, 146 
costume, 39 

——, cross-roads, 153 
extravagance, 96, 97 
_.—, face down, 151 
garden, 150 
grounds, 120, 
62, 218 

intants2 47441 est 
kneeling, 239 

naked, 37 

night, 152 

north, 149 
responsibility for, 31, 




















137, 139- 





—_—_—— 
—_- 


v_ we we he we 





32 





wSECTEL, LAS 

shafts, 129 

, times for, 30 
—, ’ unconsecrated, 152 
come UID LIV tI. 161 
versus cremation, 210 
, virgins’, 169, 170 
——, water level, 208 














CANDLES, 117, 125 

Cannibals, 47, 70, 99 

Cat, phantom, 21 

Catacombs, 134-8, 213 

Paris, 137, 138 

Catafalque, 118, 213 

Catholic Church, regulations, 
32, 33, 55 

Cemeteries, Christian, 43, 
130, 151, 247, 257 

Cenotaph, 237 





279 


280 

Ceremonious anointing, 36 

dress, 35, 36, 200 

washing, 34, 213, 224 

Certificates, 37 

Chantry, 242 

priest, 243 

Charm, curative, 74 

Charon, 51 

Chevra Kadisha, 226 

Chief, 15 

Chinese, 36, 48, 51, 52, 211 

child burial, 37, 41 

coffin, 48 

customs, 58, 73 

plague, 182 

Chrisom, 40 | 

Christian practice, 30, 33, 34, 
47, 95, 110, 134, 137, 140, 
LAO, 150; 212; 223; 224,) 240 

sentiment, 51, 77, 104 

Church, burial in, 254, 255 

Greek, 109 

— guardianship, 166 

neglect, 166 

—— yards, 139-63 

Cider, 18 

Clipping festival, 165 

Coaches, 121, 126 

Cock. 151 

Cockcrow, 236 

Coffins, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48 

, furniture, 44, 267 

——, preservation, 45, 46, 47 

, wood, 45 

Coins, 51, 52 

Common Prayer, 41, 42 

Confirmation band, 40 

Congo, 55 

Consecration, 140, 184, 185 

Coque-morts, 66, 67 

Corn, 54, 109 

Cornwall, 20, 75 

Corpse, arresting, 122 

, ceremonious viewing, 

104 

derivation, 31 

——, food, 1o1 

, lifting, 108 

Corrosives, 46 

Corsica, 68, 159, 169, 235 

Crape, 92, 96 

Cremation,. 33,1200)" 231, .214 

, scientific, 216-21 
society, 222, 223 

Crime, detection of, 46, 220 

Cross-roads, burial, 153 

Crusader, 264, 265 
























































INDEX 


Curse, 164 


DEAD, worship of, 66, 232, 
POD aa 

, kissing, 75 
March, 205 

Death hamper, 43 

Decapitation, 23 

Devon, 18 

Defilement, 141 

Dickens, Chas., 18, 148 

Dii Manes, 235 

Dirge, 119, 250 

Dolmen, 130 

Doole, 86-92 

Douglas, 194 

Dowager, 90 

Drawing and quartering, 236 

Dreams, 18 

Dresden, 21 

Drowning, 19, 238 

Druids, 164 

Drying body, 158 








EARTH eating, 162 
Earth in coffin, 162 
Earth, thrown, 162 
Egyptian, 53, 54, 58, 
101; 211,234, 240 
Embalming, 46, 74, 209-31 
Epitaph, 173, 241, 242, 253- 
72 
Excesses, 110 


100, 


| Execution, 25, 73, 206, 207 


FACTION fights, 104 

Feast, funeral, 33, 99-116 
Fees, 122 

, interment, 139 
Feralia, 235 

Feudal, 160 

Feuds, 103 

Firing party, 205 

Flag, 205 

» black, 207 

, half-mast, 206 
Flowers, 86, 168-74, 210, 233 
, heather, 171 

, ** immortelles,” 172 
Food offering, 99, 102, 172 
Foul play, 103 

France, 30, 41, 66, 93, 220, 


247 
Free Churches, 243 
Funerals, civic, 196, 197, 199 
, conventions, 97 
——, Mass, 114, 119 

















INDEX 


Funerals, naval, 206, 238 
—., processions, 99-128 
—, public, 191-208 

——, State, 88, 89 


GERMAN, 30, 217, 220 
Ghosts, 21, 77 
, Taising, 62, 63 
Gipsy customs, 42, 52 
Gladiators, 214 
Gloves, 106 
, white, 170 
Good Friday, 19 
Gorini furnace, 220 
Gowns, black, 88 
Gravedigger, 173 
Grave goods 31, 49, 50, 55, 
$52,°375,-176 

rave, pagan, 131 
Greece, 51,, 2115) 2373-244, 270 
Gun-carriage, 205 








HAIR, 269, 270 
Hammer, 50, 52 
Harrow, 117 
Hatchment, 75, 118 
Hearse, 116, 118, 203 

» Aight, +117 

——, modern, 124, 125 
-anOtor, (125, 126 
Heart beating, 23 

burial, 151, 193, 194 
sae forbidden, 194 

, stake though, 208 
Heirs, 233 














Helps, 36 
Henry I, 41 
Heriot, 80 
Hohenzollern, 20 
Horses, 125, 161 


Hour-glass, 54 

‘* House of Life,’’ 161 
INDIA, 56, 57, 58, 210, 234 
fakir, 25 

— plague, 182-90 
Infection, 29, 218 

Innocents, Parisyir37 
Insignia, 114 

Ireland, 39, 52, 64, 77, 100, 





124 
Italy, 36, 145, 214, 220 
JAPAN, 146, 234, 235 
Jewellery, mourning, 

268-71 
(pene customs, 33, 34, 39; 


176, 








281 


46; 50; 61, 62, 66,°.68, 02; 
108, 134, 144, 161, 178, 224, 
225, 226, 240, 241 

Johnson, Ben, 161 

Judea, 211 

Jury, 28 


KADAVAR UTILIZATION, 217 
Kaddish, 240 

Karlsruche, 20 

Kattafin, 66 

Keats, 215 


LACERATION, 68 
Lanhadron Park, 20 
Last Post, 205 

Leigh Hunt, 215 
Lichgate, 144 
Liripipe, 92 
Looking-glass, 53 
Louis XI, 93 

Louisa of Saxony, 21 
Lunatics, 143 


MANDRAKE, 168, 169 
Marini, 219 

Martin, Saint, 34 
Martyrs, 36, 142, 254 
Mary, Queen of Scots, 93 
Masks, 113, 213 

Mazing the dead, 152 
Memorial, 253-72 
brasses, 40, 267 
cards;(247;°271) 272 
Mexico, 56 

Military, 114, 127, 151, 


237 
charger, 59, 80, 203, 206 

Milk, 111 
Mime, 66 
Mirror, 19 
Mohammedan, 239 
Monks, 35, 47, 142 
, Capucine, 159 
, Trappist, 101 
Montpensier, Mlle., 193 
Mortalities, 182, 183, 184, 186, 

188 
Mort-cloth, 116 
Mortuary, 27, 28, 11 
chapel, 29 
tax, 80-1 
Mourning, 87-98 
Murderer, 151 
Mussulman, 210 
Mutes, 61, 65, 66, 67 
as waiters, 112 








201-6, 














282 


NAILS, coffin, 39 

Napoleon, 20, 201, 202 
Nature, I! 

Necrophorus mortuorum, iI 
New Guinea, 72 

Nomads, 211 
No-man’s-land, 186 
Norway, 39, 109, 145, 159 


OINTMENT, precious, 36, 113 
‘¢ Old Mortality,’’ 265 

Oliver Cromwell, 177 
Onions, III 

Orientation, 148, 150 
Ossuary, 174 


PACE, ceremonial, 125 

Pawan; i237 

Paurecaqtisy 125 

, flag as, 205 

Pancakes, 64, 235 

Paper trade, 38 

Parsees, 156, 157 

Perfume, 36, 231 

Persians, 157, 234 

Peruvians, 234 

Peterson, Robert, 265 

Pillage, 178 

Pinkings, 125 

Plague, 182-90 

,» Black, 182-6 

——, Great, 188, 189, 190 

—— pits, 189, 190 

precautions, 215 

Plays, 63, 144 

Plumes, 128 

Pompadour, Mlle., 138 

Portugal, 30 

Prayers, 103, 
240, 242 

for dead, 250, 251, 255 

Premature burial, 22, 23, 24, 
25, 27 

Preston, Robert, 260 

Prickets, 117,41 25 

Processions, 48, 153 

Prophet Elm, 20 

Prunes, 108 

Psychic investigation, 141, 
226, 240; 250 

Purgatory, 52, 230, 242, 243, 
244, 262 

Pyramids, 132, 133, 134 

Pyres119// 212-5, . 237 











105, 100, 234, 





RAGGED REGIMENT, 113 
Raven, 17 





INDEX 


Registers, church, 38 

Resurrection, 35, 39, 44 

men, 178, 179, 180 

Right of way, 122, 123 

Roads, 120-3 

Roman burial customs, 33; 
41, 66, 78, 84, 112, 113, 123, 
160; 17S eT 

Romanoff, 21 

Royalty, 20, 48, 74, 88, 93, 94, 
127, 151, '170,.)4077;) arene 
IQI-202, 208, 213, 214 

Russian certificates, 54 





SACRIFICE, IOI, 235, 236 

Sacrilege, 256, 266 

Saddle cloth, 127 

Sailors, 18, 206, 238 

St. Chrysostom, 34 

St. George, 236 

St. Martin, 34 

St. Odilo of Cluny, 244 

St. John’s Wood, 153 

Salt, $3,106 

Sanctuary, 130, 1 sarerea 

Sarcophagi, 135 

Scarab beetle, 54, 55 

Scotland,» 18,)42f*62,9 7a, seme 
84, 88) 107,.1110,-023e coe 
236 

, Assembly of, 143 

Serbians, 236 

Sermon, funeral, 107, 113, 192 

Sexton beetle, 11 

Shakespeare, 268 

Shelley, 194, 214 

Shrine, war, 248, 249 

Shroud, 39, 42 

, woollen, 37 

Shutters, black, 272 

Siberian dogs, 157 

Sin-eater, 69, 70 

Skulls, 174 

Skull boxes, 175 

Slave burial, 136 

Slave, slaughter of, 55, 56, 59 

Sleeping, 256, 262 

Solomon Islands, 100 

Sorcerer, 72, 73 

Soul bread, 104, 245 

duality, 101 

leaving body, 26 

Souter, Charles, 179, 180, 181 

Spain, 30 

Spirits, 15 

Spiritualist, 26 

Starvation, 234 











INDEX 


State control, 139 

State supervision, 28, 30 

Stockings, 39 

Stones, memorial, 
265 

Stuart, 94, 102, 146 

Suicides, 150, 152 

Sun worship, 158 

Superstitions, 17 

i Suttee,’’ 50,157, 59 

Sweating sickness, 187, 188 

Switzerland, 92 


254, 263, 


TABOO, 71 

Tattooing, 204 

Taxes, 80, 81 

Thirst, 155, 156 
Thompson, Sir Henry, 215 
Toads, 26 

Woul 132 

Tomb, access to, 173 

‘* Tombe Issiore,’’ 137 
Torches, 76, 78, 115 


Tower of Silence, 157 





i 
OV 
> 


cypress, 
fir, 167 
holly, 164 
myrtle, 167 
oak, 164-212 
palm, 168 
rosemary, 168 
rowan, 164 
sakaki, 168 
willow, 163 
worship of, 
» yew, 163 
Turkish h, 50 


163} (213 


I) 


a Wi ol” Se NO oe ea Se 85 wy wwe 


163, 164 





2838 
Tyburn, 177 


UNBAPTIZED CHILDREN, 143 
Undertaker, 11, 30, 44, 75; 


97, 98, 220, 231 
Urns, cinerary, 227 


VAULTS, decorated, 159 
Verdi, 199 

Viking, 158 

Violet, 94, 95 
Volley-firing, 205 
Vowess, 90 

Vultures, 156 


WAGON, I19 

Wagner, 159 

Wailers, 66, 67 

,» women, 113 

Wakes, 61-81, 109 

Wales, 21, 149, 247 

Wands, 12 

Warnings, death, 17 

Waste, 45 

Watching, 61 

Watchman, 155 

Water, III 

ROLY DELL 

Spirits, 20 

Waxcot, 78, 80 

Weeds, 86, 94 

Weeper, 92 

Wellington, 202, 203 

‘¢ White Lady,”’ 20 

Widows, 58, 59, 76, 86, 89, 90, 
gI-4, Q7 

William the Conqueror, 

Wills, 22 

Witch-doctor, 14, 72 

Witches, 21, 151 

Woking, 221 

Wreath, 171 











191-3 


ZUNA MOHAMMEDAN, 239 









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Date Due 


i ae 








IN U.S. A, 


PRINTED 


% 





| 


1 1012 01009 1686 


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| 


I 


| 


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| 
| 


I 


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